The East Coast is currently experiencing a heat wave. This makes working the horses difficult, but not impossible. We’re doing short sessions, mostly ground work.
By “we”, I mean my daughter and I. At 11 years old, she’s really becoming an accomplished equestrian in her own right. She argues with me incessantly and throws melodramatic tantrums at the drop of a hat, but I know 60 year old equestrians who also do that and at least my 11 year old is still trainable.
Anyway, we generally start working with the horses early in the morning and can usually get everyone done before the heat really sets in. The other day it got hot fast, though, and my daughter’s pony, Spots, decided to have a few tantrums of his own (I’m not sure if this is a case of the horse taking on the personality of his owner, or if ponies just naturally have the personality of an angsty tween).
We also had a slight interruption during the training session when Beau, our 28 year old blind retiree, decided to wander into the arena to roll. He lives with Spots, so we let him come out to graze at the side of the arena while we work Spots because he usually doesn’t cause problems.
Since the pony’s training session went long and it was getting too hot, I decided that Jack and Newboy could wait until the evening to be taken out to work. Being needy, spoiled rotten Thoroughbreds, they did not agree. As soon as they saw us heading in without paying attention to them, they proceeded to throw a massive fit. They ran around their pasture like hooligans, raising such a ruckus that my neighbor called to make sure someone wasn’t actively dying over here.
The conversation went like this:
Neighbor: “Are you OK?! I can hear your horses running and screaming!”
Me: “It’s OK! We’re fine. Jack and Newboy are pissed that they didn’t get any attention and they’re having a tantrum.”
Neighbor: “OMG! I thought something really bad happened! Your horses are such jerks!”
Me: “Yup.”
I did get some really nice pictures of them in action, though. Apparently, they’re at their athletic best when they’re throwing entitled hissy fits.
They did get hosed down after throwing throwing their fit, which probably just reinforced their tantrum throwing behavior.
A Work In Progress.... 