Thoughts on lessons

Every week or so, my person, Katie, rides me in this thing called a lesson. This is when Amy Barn Owner tells Katie how to ride me better. Sometimes, like today, Amy Barn Owner rides me before Katie. This is weird, because Katie is usually the only one to ride me, so I tell the People this by tail swishes and I look at Katie to make sure she is okay with this (she doesn't care). Amy Barn Owner rides me to figure out what kind of riding makes me work best, so she can better teach Katie. She asks for harder stuff than Katie does.

Over the course of these lessons, as well as generally being ridden, I have discovered something very important! When you try to say "I don't want to do that, I do what I want!" you get rein pulls, leg bumps and more working. This is not fun, so you make more grumps about it, but it only makes more work for you.

But, when you try what the rider is asking, even if you don't get it right, as long as you try, the asking goes away and you get "Good girl"'s and shoulder scritches. Also, even when the thing they ask you to do is hard (like trot with a bend and with one's head down, versus in the sky, like is my first preference), it usually feels better! When your head is in the air, it hurts your back and shoulder and hips, but when you use your back, it takes pressure away!

Dis ma game face - bring on the trots!

So I have decided I like shoulder scritches and "good girl"s and less ouches better than rein pulls, leg bumps and more work. So I think I will do what the People ask me from now on. With exceptions, of course. ;)

Good girls get their forelock braided! :)

Belly ouches

Last Saturday, I had the belly ouches (*colic*). Katie came after feeding time and I was trying to nap away the ouch.

Here I am looking pitiful but still cute!

I never lay down when stuff is happening because everything is SO interesting and how can you be so passive when stuff is HAPPENING!

I hadn't eaten my ponydinner or my hay. And I was all hot and sweaty. 

Katie had Amy Barn Owner come check me out and she listened to my heart and belly with a cold metal circle with tubes to her ears. Normally, I would have investigated this odd device, but I felt so icky that I just stood with my nose on the ground. Katie hugged and patted me and was clearly very worried. Amy Barn Owner said I was not too bad, but Katie should walk me around and they squirted icky goo in my mouth that was supposed to make me feel better. I did not feel like walking, but Katie insisted, so I did, with my nose about an inch from the ground. I was super sad looking. :(

But I am back to my normal self now! The People think it was because I was running a lot in the afternoon and I got really hot, then chugged my water in my stall. Guess I won't do that again!

Why, Hello there!

Hello! I am Beauty! I am a six year old Morgan mare and I am the most beautiful horse in the land. My name says so! I live in the place humans call Maine (not to be confused with mane). My person is an 18 year old girl (in horse years, that is very old, but in human years, she is young) named Katie. Contrary to what she believes, I picked her, she didn't pick me. I was just a 4 year old when I met her and knew nothing about working with humans and riding. Katie wanted a horse that knew all this stuff already and really wasn't even looking to have her own horse, but when she came to my home (she was friends with the lady who took care of me), I convinced her that I was the Best Horse. She agreed to help train me, and slowly but surely, she fell in love with me. I mean, everyone loves me, but she ESPECIALLY loved me. And now she is mine FOREVER. :)
Here's us!

Now we have been together for two years (but only officially when she bought me on April 15, 2011) and we have learned so much together. Now we ride and we can walk and trot and I am learning dressage! I have a good life with my person.