My Reality Check Is Bouncing

Sunday, May 30, 2004

NO mere mortal horse can be so good. It just ain't natural!!! And not for $350!!

Yep, Day Two of Quzqo Ownership...not a single part of my body is in pain, bruised or broken. I have not eaten any dirt, my glasses have not been knocked off, nor have I feared for my life. Pretty good I'd say!

Mr. Cusco, or as I am spelling it on his stall sign just to be obnoxious, "Quzqo", is transforming before my eyes. I'm wary now...WHY did the original owner sell him? WHY was he sold off so cheap. Is he a killer? Was his original owner allergic? Does he drop and roll if you cue him for a canter? Or was it because he was too smart for those people and got his way...such as his little displays earlier in the week (the rearing, the bucking, the rushing, the gate antics).

Well, thanks to the Wise Friends and their advice, today, Quzqo is no longer ring sour!! I rode him, and I had trouble keeping him on the rail; he wanted NOTHING to do with the gates!! LOL!!! Now, I do have another theory...it just so happened that while I was riding him, there were 3 or 4 other horses in the arena with us, and a couple in the aisles being tacked up. He was
fine as could be. We worked the rail, we rested in the middle of the arena.

But the teenage girls all evacuated the barn to go ride outdoors (with the 20+ mph winds, go for it!). There was one horse left tied in the aisle...and damned if Quzqo didn't start oozing towards the rail where that horse was, and started to balk and head-toss! Nothing like previously...but now I'm wondering if he isn't "ring sour" per se, but just insecure and desireous of other equine company! Because when the girls came back in, he settled down again, and trotted past that horse like it wasn't even there. He's constantly whinneying at the other horses...I bet that's part of his "issues" right now!

But I did trot him, and he DID trot for quite a while this time (I had trouble keeping him going on Friday)...his gait has really loosened up...no more choppy jarring trot, his trot was as smooth as warm chocolate! WONDERFUL! Okay, yes, true, I've been riding a horse with a limp for the
past 7 years, but even discounting that...I was very impressed! He didn't try to run off, didn't grab the bit, slowed and collected when I asked him to...

Maybe tomorrow I'll be brave and try cantering him. I'm chicken, I'll admit, but getting more confident each day!

More amazing things: while riding him, a white plastic shopping bag started slowly blowing down the aisle on its own...Quzqo glanced at it and kept on walking. You know how far up into the rafters Tezlu would have jumped at that? He'd have hopped out of his skin and gone galloping nekkid across the arena!

I was lunging Quzqo with the saddle on...but I forgot to tighten the cinch before starting. He's trotting around and around...the saddle starts to slip...slip...slip...I tell him to "whoa", he stops, just as the saddle slips over and is hanging UNDER HIS BELLY! He STANDS there! Looking at me! Like, "well? I thought you were experienced at tacking up a horse!". He let me undo the cinch, the saddle fell to the ground beneath him, I had to lead him away from the saddle, as he kept standing there.

I don't need to mention how apeshit Tezlu would have exploded if that happened (that one time he threw my niece into the fence and went galloping around the arena with my Stubben saddle under his belly; broke the saddle tree AND snapped the metal stirrup iron...I still have that stirrup).

If I hadn't had all ready bought Quzqo, I tell ya, I would have bought him on the spot after that little demonstration!!

Still shaking my head in wonderment...