Critter is a... well...critter :)

Critter was difficult enough to ride when she was here in training! She is what would be referred to as a "hand" horse. Meaning you need to be a hand to be able to get along with her. She has an abundance of energy, a silly streak, and hormone issues. It seems like she is in heat all the time. She has a lot of running blood in her and is accordingly hot. She is a phenomonal athlete when she is right, and she is super cowy and can read a cow quickly and accurately. Getting her right... that is the challenge.

I liked riding Critter when she was here, even though it was often frustrating and not the most fun ride of the day. I liked it anyway because she would always teach me something. Learning how to get with a tough horse like her without getting in a fight, getting the point across, getting her dialed in...well that takes skill. There were times I was not up to the task and I would hear those devastating words from my trainer... "okay let me on her."

After her futurity debut, Critter went home. She is now being ridden and shown by her owner, a 19 year old semi-beginning cutter. He is showing her in two handed cutting for practice for a year before cutting on her. While my trainer can go through a good run with Critter, she is young and green and riding her two handed is a good confidence builder for both her and her owner. It will allow both of them to get some show pen seasoning while keeping things at a doable level for both of them.

Well he is a great kid, and he is a good rider. I told him that when Critter was here I loped her every day...even on our days off. Critter is the type of horse that needs consistent exercise. She isnt' getting it. I can't blame him for being the type who isn't interested in riding every day at this point of his life. He's busy being a college kid. (I understand that not every kid is a freak like me who lives and breathes horses horses and more horses).

Anyway, his parents bring Critter over when they come for their weekly lessons, in hopes that my trainer will school her. Lately, he has been making me do it. This helps them, since then they do not pay. It also helps him (hahahaha) since he doesn't have to ride her! And, it helps me. It helps me learn. It isn't always fun though.

So I get on her after she hasn't been rode in a week or so and of course she is completely silly. Luckily it was 92 degrees yesterday so it didnt take too long to get her tired. I can feel her owner in her, his bad side, his unsteady-ness. I could feel her wanting to be in a fight with me, waiting for me to muscle her around. How easy it is to fall into that trap and start hanging and dragging and pulling and fighting. But there is another way. A horse like Critter could get so bad if that is the road the rider takes. She would be the one rearing up, bucking, or just turning into total crap. It takes a lot to rise above that and figure out how to get through to her, overcome the fight and just do what I do. It takes faith in the fundamentals. Even when the horse is on the fight, and has been getting sloppy, isn't mentally ready to perform, a rider who has faith in their fundamentals, who can practice good fundamentals even when the horse is not cooperating. What it takes is singleminded focus on the task and what it takes to get the horse right, no matter what is wrong with the horse.

It seems so easy to start making excuses. "my horse isnt' doing this, my horse is throwing her shoulder, she's stiff, she is in heat, she is being an idiot, etc," but at the end of the day, the excuses dont' really matter. What matters is whether you were able to communicate and get points across despite all those particular circumstances. That is what I have learned from riding here with my trainer, and riding Critter.

Sometimes I am able to ride her great, despite circumstances. At the show last weekend, it was super windy and an open, "scary" environment, near a pond filled with noisy geese, but I got her dialed in anyway, even though she hadn't been rode in more than a week prior. Yesterday I wasn't as good. I started out getting in a fight with her. But then I "checked" myself and stopped fighting, and fell into my fundamentals, just doing what I do. Then I overcame the fight in her and we started working as a team. She got tired enough to stop being silly and accept my hands and legs. And I got soft enough to ask her light and help her do things right. We ended up looking like pretty good cutters!