Well, I've been having a hell of a time gettin out to work on my horse lately. (Her name is Ruby, she is a seven-year-old Paint. She don't have much for markings, save for the white blaze on her face and a stocking on her back leg. She's Got very faint dappling down the sides of her. You can only see it when she doesn't have her winter coat. She's a beauty, but a pain in the ass too.)
I just got her broke about a month or two ago by a buddy of mine. I didn't have a saddle at the time (and I still don't. The joys of being a poor waitress. Ha), so when the time came for him to pack up all his tack to get to breakin a horse he just bought, I was left shit outta luck. I would try to get out and ride her when I could, but ridin bareback when you got your own back that's shot to hell from a car accident a couple years back, you can only ride a horse bareback so much. So ridin her eventually just slipped back to doing basic ground work with her, which, in turn, faded back to just feedin her and letting her go on her own routine. For one, she's a bitch to catch, and two, she's pretty set in her ways. I know it was a bad thing to do, but I'm starting back up on the ol' routine again. I had a problem awhile back. Every time I would head out to the pasture, she'd charge me and start buckin and raisin all holy hell. Anything she could think of to try and establish that it was
her pasture and I wasn't gonna be able to do shit about it. She got so close to kickin me in the head one time that she kicked my hat clean off my head. Hell, i was just walkin the pasture with my foxhound Bailey and the two spaniels Lyle and Sydney (you can see Sydney in the lower picture behind Ruby), and she would come a-tearin at me a like a bat out of hell. I knew it couldn't have been the dogs that provoked her, she grew up with them two damn springer spaniels, and I
always bring Bailey along. Eventually I just got damn tired of waitin for my buddy's empty promises of coming down that ol' dirt road to come take a look and see why she was doin it, so I took matters into my own hands.
It had gotten bad enough to where as soon as I would pull in the drive, she would come flyin from the other end of the pasture and start raisin hell. I couldn't even come up to the gate without her kickin at me. Now I don't know a whole lot about horses behavior issues and shit, but I just did what I thought would do the job for now; at least to the point where I could walk the pasture and not get charged. Tanner still needs to come out and work with her though. So one day when she came tearin at me, I grabbed the lead rope from the tack room (I couldn't find the damn whip), and just startin twirlin it around me faster than hell. She immediately came to a halt like "What the
fuck?!" and stared at me. She tried charging a second time. Same result from my end. Eventually she learned not to throw a fit around me. She got rewarded for good behavior, and either cracked on the ass with the rope (if she was close enough), or I started whirling the rope around my head whenever she started bucking near me. She still likes to throw her tantrums in the middle of the pasture, clear away from me, though. So that still needs to be worked on. And for good measure, I wanna get Tanner out here and have him hop up on her and check if it means she's gonna buck when someone's on her, too. I don't need to get launched sky high off the ass-end of a horse with my back the condition that it's in. Granted I've fallen off a time or two-- don't get me wrong-- but getting bucked clean off would surely fuck my back up somethin fierce. I'll let you know how things are goin as we work out the little kinks throughout these next weeks (that is, if Tanner ever gets the fuck out there).
Wish me luck!
