How I got here...

In the last post I mentioned that I have been riding a filly at the barn. She's a cute little now 4 y/o, red pinto with 4 stockings and minimal white markings otherwise. She's a flashy little thing for what she is, but some of you may be wondering how this came to be? And that's a good question.

One of the girls at the barn had a cute little palomino filly. Classy was about 14.3 and pretty green, so her owner was going to train her and eventually run barrels on her. At some point the filly scared the girl and that was that. I think what it was, was letting her boyfriend ride Classy and he got into her a lope and the filly bucked.

One time while she was riding Classy and having issues, I asked for her phone.  I had her put it on video so I could give her a clear idea of what was going on and why things were going wrong. She was hanging onto the reins almost like her life depended on it. There was no release and very little give to her hands. Although she felt like her hands were soft and following, they weren't. I had told her several times before to drop her hands, let her go, give her some release.... to no avail. When I had it on video to show her, there was no denying it.

She tried to self correct. She tried to let go of the reins and trust her horse, but the damage had been done. Classy had never made a bad move with her, but after seeing her buck with her boyfriend, she knew Classy was capable of doing it at any time. Just the idea of her horse going all NFR on her had her unsettled. She was beat before she got started.

Classy was up for sale thru no fault of her own and within a short time there was a buyer on the line, cash in hand and ready to close the deal. Problem was, he wanted to see her work under saddle. Who wouldn't? Her owner admitted she was scared to get on her.

I had gotten to the barn that night as she had saddled Classy and had her working in the round pen. "Hey Linda, ya wanna jump on her for me?" Well sure. I had her walking and trotting both directions on a fairly loose rein, and stopping with a shift of weight and a calm, soothing "whoa". As I got on Classy, there was a number of people that started coming to the round pen and gathering on the rail to watch.

The buyer asked if I could get her to back up and when I first tried to, she was a bit resistant. I worked Classy a little more as her owner and the buyer talked and soon I asked for he back again and got it. Classy dropped her head and stepped back as I moved each rein and signaled with my legs. I asked if he wanted to see her lope, but he had already made his decision. Horse was sold and her owner could move on to another horse.

There have been a number of horses come and go since Classy, but this one, she decided to let me start and work on. Funny thing is, I have asked her to get on this filly several different times and she has yet to do it. This filly has never made a bad step, and yet she won't get on her.

I told her the other day that one of these days she's going to get on this filly and that will be it. I won't be able to get her Off and she'll be hounding the Hell out of me to ride her again....