| Okay - this is Blue Eyes. I'm sure you've heard me call him many other names - but I really think that's the anger talking. This horse really makes me mad. Just about everywhere we go - my time is better than anyone elses. It's when they tack on those extra 5 points for each barrel knocked over that really gets me. The shame of it is that I know it's my fault and it's something I'm telling him to do. He reins SO cotton-picking well and listens to leg pressure so well that he's doing exactly what I'm telling him to do and I seem to be telling him to hit that barrel or cut in on that pole. Really though, Blue Eyes has come a long way since I first got him. When I brought him to my place it was 5 days before he let me even touch him. I would sit out there with him for hours with a bucket of feed and he would look at me, but he never would come to me. Once I was able to get him to come to me, which took about a month, I was able to start working with him. He was scared of everything.... opening his stall door to fast, the water trough, the automatic waterer, the wind, the shop door opening/closing... if it moved or made noise he wanted nothing to do with it. After a lot of work and a lot of confidence both ways, I truly believe you will not be able to scare him easily now. He will stand tied all day long at a trailer, but the second the shoer comes around he's not standing still at all. He requires a Be-Nice halter to shoe him. He will only pull back once and then quit, but he will try to see what he can get away with. He's never kicked at me, although he does like to pin his ears back A LOT! He was the one every one picked on when he first got here. It was sad to watch him out in the pasture with the other horses, because no one wanted him around. But, now he's become equal, not more dominant, but equal to the other horses. He's changed a lot since he first came here. He's been a joy to ride and I like him, but I feel like once I conquer our little barrel/pattern problem, he will be Kandace's horse and then go up for sale. Because I fall in love with all my animals and I've fallen in love with this one too, but I don't think it's gonna hurt the way my other one's have. |
