Oh Kitty...

Kitten, the gray mare in my profile pic, is an odd horse. I picked her out of a field based on her gorgeous floating movement, despite the fact that she had not been handled for the entire 7 years of her life and desperately needed a lot of remedial hoof work.

Fast forward...what? Three years?

Kitten is very easy for me to handle. I can do anything I would like to with her. However...she doesn't necessarily like other people handling her. It is not a fear thing, but rather a mood issue...as if she wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and has 0 tolerance for other people.

Let me give you an example.
Thursday, my mother came over to drive me to a specialist appointment on Friday. I wanted to ride. I convinced her to go riding, as she rode a lot in her youth, but is troubled by stiffness and fear of injury. She wanted to ride Kit. I wanted her to ride the Old Man, my obnoxious PSG schoolmaster, who was actually in a good, sleepy mood. Kit had the 0 tolerance look to her: the hard, proud, alpha look (of course, she is the top mare right now with my big Holst still in VA).

Mom insisted. I finally gave in, with pissy facial expressions and muttered swearing.

Kit was willing to stand to be mounted, but did a small dophin impression when Mom swung on. I growled at her, and she cocked her head and looked at me, then did it again. I swore, and told Mom to get off right now. Mom stayed on for another moment, enough so that Kit did another dolphin impression, and then got off.

I was highly peeved at this point, as the situation I had seen brewing had just come to life. I stuck my arm through Kit's reins, and swung the Old Man over to the 3 step mounting block. After telling us all to bury her facing Texas, she got on. And they were fine.

Kit, on the other hand, was aggravated and borderline aggressive. In moods like this, she wants to do something, and do it now. I waved to my fiance M, his friend M, and the sister C (with her two little girls). Kit and I marched off down the driveway together, knowing that Mom would catch up.

After we walked the 300 yards to the end of the driveway, I positioned Mom facing us (up the driveway), and ran Kit through all the pre-mounting preparations that we do. She demands a routine, and gets annoyed if something deviates, but doesn't care where we are just as long as she has her routine. So I showed her what I was going to use to get up (two cement blocks), tugged softly on the saddle, checked the girth, pressed hard on the saddle for a few moments, and then swung up.

Of course, she was perfect. She cheerfully wandered along our trail ride with her eyes out sideways like an old plow horse. She didn't bat an eye over running cows, and coolly volunteered a lead past them when the Old Man was disturbed by their bucking and cavorting. She didn't raise a hair at the field of galloping and snorting horses, and (rather snidely, I thought) showed Old Man how perfectly she could walk in the very center of the road.

We walked to a relative's house and chit chatted for a while with the elderly gentleman while the horses ate clover.

The way back was uneventful, with the exception of Kit giving a small ego fit after I got off and stood for a moment talking to M. I pinched the edge of her nostril with my fingernails as she was rather obnoxious, jumping straight up into the air and then waving around a front foot. She grumpily snorted at me, and waited until I was finished talking.

The point of the post?
1. Know your damn horse. I can look at Kitty and tell what kind of day she is having at 200 feet away.
2. Know what you can expect of your horse. Kitty loves her routines, and if she is having a good day, she is willing to put up with more mistakes than usual. If she is having a bossy girl day (like above), then the only person that needs to be up on her is "her" person. I'd chuckled in the past over the idea of a one person horse, and still do, but there is something to be said about the level of competence required to ride a certain kind of horse. A tempermental hot mare may tolerate being handled by a beginner on a day when she is feeling relaxed, and is willing to trade pampering for some small offenses due to inexperience.
3. All my horse knowledge hasn't totally gone to shit despite being sick. I feel like I ride like a tapeworm, as I can feel every obnoxious crookedness in my body influencing my horse. Even though I am not very strong, I can still rely on my ability to observe my horse's moods and make appropriate decisions based on their personality and experience.
4. I do a good job training. Kitten hasn't been in consistent work since I got really sick. Despite that, she is always (for me) very purposeful in completing the tasks I give her. I almost used the word "quiet", but that is a misnomer...she is very determinedly doing what I asked her to do so she can get a reward. That is very different from a horse that is rather dull and ignoring what you want (often a definition of quiet). She is dead set on her task, and she wants her cookie afterwards (even if the cookie comes as a grazing reward during the ride, or even two handfulls of grain after she is in her stall).
5. I like my horses hot and temperamental. :)