New Project

My father in law bought a horse named Lucy, about two years ago. She is a big bodied girl. She has a wide chest and nice big hip. My father in law got her in hopes that he could ride her on trail rides. Well, trail rides have come and gone and Lucy has not been on a single trail ride. In fact I think she thinks that she is in the best home she has ever had. She gets all she can eat hay and grass and never gets ridden. About six months ago my father in law tried to sell her. But no calls. I think that is due to her color. Some people just don't like horses like Lucy. I think she is cute though. He had her turned out in 40 acres for over a year and not a soul has touched her. Every once in a while she would get checked on, but nobody has ridden her. Then about two months ago he brought her back home. She was a bit underweight but she was still as sweet as before.

Here is Lucy. She is an Appaloosa. Or as my red neck in laws call her an Oppoloosas. I try to correct them but they just won't listen. They even call her an "Oppy". Whuauauauaa! Sorry, it's funny. When they put an ad in the paper they wrote that she was an Oppoloosas. Maybe that is why nobody called? I read ads like that and think, "They have no clue. They can't even get the breed right, who knows what the horse is like. " Any way, this was a picture I took of her one time when we went out to the "country" (like I don't live in the country, this pasture is 45 minutes farther into the deep south) to check on the horses and cows. She just trotted right up to us. She is the one horse that you can just walk up to and halter. She has a nice personality.

Here she is modeling for us. You can see she lacks a lot of muscle and is a bit underweight. But oh how that has changed. I need to get a recent photo of her. I rode Lucy the other day. She does have some issues, but nothing that can't be ironed out. I rode her at our last rodeo and she was very nervous. I don't blame her for being nervous. She didn't know who I was and I was riding her into an arena that she had never been to before, and I was asking her to walk and trot around some funny looking things. Well, they were just poles and barrels but still , she thought they were funny looking. She did very well, considering that was the first time I had ridden her.

When I rode her the other day, she was in "go" mode. That is all she wanted to do. I on the other hand was not in "go" mode. I am never in that mode. I have two speeds, slow and slower. So, she got a quick work out in the round pen where she was grateful to let out a few bucks. All Lucy and I did was walk and stop. You would not believe how relaxed she became. I think she was a bit grateful too. She is used to being ridden by a 16 year old boy that doesn't know anything about riding. He just gets on and goes. Then by the time our hour was up, I had her bending at the poll and doing some bending and flexing. She was grateful for the stretch. My father in law was all excited. I am going to ride her again tonight, I will take some more pictures. She is super fat now. I am also taking her to the rodeo this weekend, where I will take some pictures of us barrel racing, or barrel walking, that is what we are going to be doing. I do the slow work and then when the time is right for a bit more speed I hand the horse over to Mr. Cowboy. I will lope the barrels but as far as galloping, no thanks. That makes my hands sweat! I give props to all those speed demons out there!!