Quzqo Becomes A Man!

Sun Aug 6, 2006

Today Quzqo became a Man! Or a Horse...LOL! Yes, today he was initiated into being ridden with his Big Horse Bit! A CURB! Sniff...no longer a little baby with a big fat eggbutt snaffle, now he's a Horse!

Been toying with the idea for quite a while, but reading how a snaffle just pinches the tongue vs the more finessed curb...I thought what the hell. Removed Tezlu's nice cowboy pelham off his old bridle that I had on the wall next to his portrait, gave it a good scrubbing (removing all the 3 yr old Tezlu DNA), and put it on Quzqo 's western bridle (formerly holding the fat eggbutt snaffle).

Crikey, he's 8 bloody years old, it's about time! lol!

He was cute when I first put it in...he was going "gaaaah" and mouthing it and flopping his tongue around (might have been the dish soap residue, I thought I rinsed it good though) and playing with it. Since it's a cowboy pelham, it's got two sets of rings...one up by the mouthpiece for a more direct snaffle-like pull, and another down the shank for a proper curb action. And I used the broken-in soft leather curb strap, rather loose. Tried a couple practice applications before mounting, and he tucked his head immediately, and didn't seem upset.

He was more upset by the fact the evening feeders were putting grain in the stalls, LOL! He didn't care WHAT his monkey was doing, he was more interested in DINNER!! Rode him a little, and he was a distracted dingbat, so we moved to the outdoor arena, where he became a petulent dingbat who only wanted to go back to the barn! Didn't have a lot of luck with the bridle on the "snaffle" setting, so I moved the reins down to the lower rings for proper curb action. That's when I discovered he really canNOT neck rein to save his soul, BWAHAHAA! Gotta work on that I guess.

BUT...even though he wasn't warmed up or properly tired out or really paying any kind of attention, I was able to get him into a SWEET slow Western jog trot for about 10 seconds! I was thrilled to DEATH! I've never gotten him to trot quite that slow (well, a couple of times this past winter!). Gee, there might be something to this curb caper after all! He also backed nicely after a brief head-tossing/tail-switching incident! Steering is a total cock-up though, we really need to work on that, LOL!

I'm seriously pondering taking him into the Novice WP Class at the barn show in September (on Sunday, w/the single judge, so I only piss away $4 in fees)...just for shits & grins. I wonder if my horn-less trail saddle would be legal, or do I need to borrow one. Hm.

(Hm, have to remember how to ride one-handed, dang!)