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murakoziI ended up very slightly hurting my wrist on Sunday thanks to Amigo. Amigo is a nice horse, and could be one heck of a good school horse but for two things: He scares too easily and he's just not a very bright horse.
Amigo does fine when in the indoor ring. Even in the outdoor ring he's not that bad, though he can be hard to keep focused and under control. On the trail he's just too easily distracted and quite a handfull. Horses are like people and most other critters. Some are smarter than others. We've got some very clever horses at the barn, but the majority of them are pretty average. When J.R. was alive, he was often described as 'dumb but happy' which wasn't quite correct. J.R. was a little stubborn and often seemed like he wasn't all there. He was the horse of choice, though, when we had a kid or adult rider who had physical or mental issues. Put a challenged kid on J.R.'s back and suddenly he was all business. He really took care of those riders. So he wasn't dumb. I think he was just more happy-go-lucky most of the time. (J.R. also had one beautiful trot. With that prancy front leg action I always thought he should be pulling a buggy with high-society types in it)
Amigo on the other hand is...well...pretty stupid. He's the one who still eyeballs the foliage behind the barn after seeing a terrifying baby bunny out there a couple years back. Sunday was a new level of doofishness for him and I ended up being the one who had to deal with it.
I was leading Amigo out to turn him out in the pasture. Of course, he did his usual suspicious eyballing of that tree where the scary fist-sized bunny was long ago, but he seemed less concerned about it than he often does. Irina was out back and had just finished filling the stock tanks as I led Amigo up. I opened the gate and she came over to hold it while I turned Amigo loose. That's when the fun started. Amigo suddenly tensed up and bounced on his front end, head high in a 'I'm gonna rear' way. I gave his lead a yank and looked around. What was scaring him? Following the direction of his white-eyed gaze I saw...Pumpkin.
Okay, Pumpkin arrived back in October. He's a pony. He's a very small pony. The smallest horse in the barn. He's also beyond cute. I swear you can see the cuteness rays shimmering around his body. He's so cute that the first time he was turned out with the herd, they didn't do the usual thing of pushing around the new guy. The other horses were almost fighting each other just to be the ones to hang around with the small new nonagressive cute pony. Pumpkin is also very friendly. After Amigo did his OMGWTF?!? move, I decided to get his halter off fast before he did it again. Pumpkin chose that time to give a little "Hi Amigo!" nicker and amble on over. Well that was too much for poor Amigo. I guess the sight of a cute, harmless pony friend was just too terrifying for the guy because he half stood up and tried to back through the gate, which wasn't closed. That pushed Irina off balance and she let go of the gate, which started to swing open. I was stuck holding the unbuckled strap of the halter in one hand and lead rope in the other, trying to pull Amigo down and get him to go forward instead of turning and running off loose. Fortunately, Irina got the gate and give a shove against Amigo's butt. I got him down and yanked the halter off. Amigo blasted off up the hill to escape the terrifying friendly pony. Pumpkin just watched him go then ambled off to hang around with some other horses.
During all that I seem to have done some minor injury inside my wrist. It's not sore, but does remind me now and then when I move it the wrong way.
The car is being worked on today. It needed an oil change and I asked 'em to check the serpentine belt. A few times in the past couple weeks I've heard a chirping sound that sounds like a belt slipping a little when I've been at an idle or briefly when accellerating from a dead stop. The mechanic called this morning and said the belt was showing a little wear but didn't truly need replacing. It likely would need replacing not too far in the future, but it wasn't necessary to do it today. I told 'em to go ahead and change it. Hopefully that'll take care of the chirping noise.
Amigo does fine when in the indoor ring. Even in the outdoor ring he's not that bad, though he can be hard to keep focused and under control. On the trail he's just too easily distracted and quite a handfull. Horses are like people and most other critters. Some are smarter than others. We've got some very clever horses at the barn, but the majority of them are pretty average. When J.R. was alive, he was often described as 'dumb but happy' which wasn't quite correct. J.R. was a little stubborn and often seemed like he wasn't all there. He was the horse of choice, though, when we had a kid or adult rider who had physical or mental issues. Put a challenged kid on J.R.'s back and suddenly he was all business. He really took care of those riders. So he wasn't dumb. I think he was just more happy-go-lucky most of the time. (J.R. also had one beautiful trot. With that prancy front leg action I always thought he should be pulling a buggy with high-society types in it)
Amigo on the other hand is...well...pretty stupid. He's the one who still eyeballs the foliage behind the barn after seeing a terrifying baby bunny out there a couple years back. Sunday was a new level of doofishness for him and I ended up being the one who had to deal with it.
I was leading Amigo out to turn him out in the pasture. Of course, he did his usual suspicious eyballing of that tree where the scary fist-sized bunny was long ago, but he seemed less concerned about it than he often does. Irina was out back and had just finished filling the stock tanks as I led Amigo up. I opened the gate and she came over to hold it while I turned Amigo loose. That's when the fun started. Amigo suddenly tensed up and bounced on his front end, head high in a 'I'm gonna rear' way. I gave his lead a yank and looked around. What was scaring him? Following the direction of his white-eyed gaze I saw...Pumpkin.
Okay, Pumpkin arrived back in October. He's a pony. He's a very small pony. The smallest horse in the barn. He's also beyond cute. I swear you can see the cuteness rays shimmering around his body. He's so cute that the first time he was turned out with the herd, they didn't do the usual thing of pushing around the new guy. The other horses were almost fighting each other just to be the ones to hang around with the small new nonagressive cute pony. Pumpkin is also very friendly. After Amigo did his OMGWTF?!? move, I decided to get his halter off fast before he did it again. Pumpkin chose that time to give a little "Hi Amigo!" nicker and amble on over. Well that was too much for poor Amigo. I guess the sight of a cute, harmless pony friend was just too terrifying for the guy because he half stood up and tried to back through the gate, which wasn't closed. That pushed Irina off balance and she let go of the gate, which started to swing open. I was stuck holding the unbuckled strap of the halter in one hand and lead rope in the other, trying to pull Amigo down and get him to go forward instead of turning and running off loose. Fortunately, Irina got the gate and give a shove against Amigo's butt. I got him down and yanked the halter off. Amigo blasted off up the hill to escape the terrifying friendly pony. Pumpkin just watched him go then ambled off to hang around with some other horses.
During all that I seem to have done some minor injury inside my wrist. It's not sore, but does remind me now and then when I move it the wrong way.
The car is being worked on today. It needed an oil change and I asked 'em to check the serpentine belt. A few times in the past couple weeks I've heard a chirping sound that sounds like a belt slipping a little when I've been at an idle or briefly when accellerating from a dead stop. The mechanic called this morning and said the belt was showing a little wear but didn't truly need replacing. It likely would need replacing not too far in the future, but it wasn't necessary to do it today. I told 'em to go ahead and change it. Hopefully that'll take care of the chirping noise.