Well, dang, if I haven't updated this in over a year.

I bear sad news. Maytag, the topic horse of my last entry, has been sold. This means I'm no longer able to ride the feisty old horse . Marie, one of the stable owners, has bestowed upon me a project horse....I think it's to give me something to do now that I don't have Maytag to ride. Honestly, I've never trained a horse before. In all actuality, I've only been seriously riding (aka, not including the trail rides at state parks during yearly vacations) for a little over 4 years. I've never had lessons; I've just watched and learned through repetition, books, and observation. The problem: this new horse, Rusty, is desperately attached to this mare named Autumn. He is said to have been a lesson horse, but I can't picture anyone learning with him...except maybe patience. He is skittish when saddling but totally calm if allowed to graze while being tacked up....some kind of distraction maybe? He's very stubborn about taking the bit. I'm going to try rubbing molasses on it to encourage him a little. He has either forgotten or is ignoring all his neck reining signals. He won't turn left. He'll turn when he wants to but won't let you turn him left. When moving, his stride is always very collected. He has very long legs but won't extend them. He's not lame or tender anywhere. He might be slightly stiff from lack of exercise. But goodness knows he ain't overweight because of it. Without being motivated to move other than to drift from clump of grass to clump of grass, he's lost a lot of muscle mass in his shoulders and wither area, giving him a very scrawny look. He seems to have forgotten how much space a human needs. He totally disregards the fact that someone's there. Not a care in the world if he bumps you over or hits your head when he swings his thick skull to see if his girlfriend is there....let me tell you, he has a THICK skull for one with such a narrow face. If you have ANY suggestions, please feel free to share them. Besides the molasses idea, I'm going to lunge him more and do a lot of ground-driving to remind him about his left turn. Wish me luck!