Because Sometimes the Snark Comes Out.

I'm not really a huge fan of simply reposting other people's blogs (at least not without my own clever, helpful commentary) and I am also not a huge fan of the Fugly Blog.  But - I am becoming a pretty big fan of Dressage Curmudgeon and I really enjoyed her guest post on Fugly.

I know this went up a while ago, so regular Fugly readers, please ignore, but if you don't know DC or you havent' seen this post, I find it fairly amusing.

It also strikes a chord with me on a few levels.  Having played the "I just want to ride a horse not at a fancy barn because I love horses" game that DC is trying out - I can empathize with the amount of questionable judgement out there with more than a few absent-owners (this is where I acknowledge that at this point in my life, I also fall into this category).

At the time however, it became general knowledge that I "enjoyed" everyone else's "problem horses."  It wasn't so much that I craved a battle every time I got on a pony (although the years 2010 and 2011 of this blog may suggest otherwise), but it infuriated me to watch people shy away from trotting their 14 year old pleasure horse (who they "raised") because trotting made "Joey-boo" (not kidding) rear sometimes.

"I swear he only does this whenever you ask him to....do... ANYTHING."

When I asked "well, what's behind the rearing?"  I'd get an answer like "he's spirited" or "he needs to be turned out first" or some other equally retarded explanation for what I would consider to be an incredibly alarming behavioral pattern....

For the record, I wouldn't call occassional-trot-rears "spirited."  Either there is a raging pain issue or you just own a rude, bastard horse.

Realizing that I was never going to find the magical lower-level-anything to hack out (seriously, would have accepted a dressage, H/J, barrel racing... whatever), I finally decided to give up on the amateur catch riding and get my own beast where I could at least account for the bad behavior myself.

We all know where that road went with P, but I'm proud to say that I (think?) I'm addressing P's issues and doing the best I can to make sure that she ends up a good citizen even when I have the gall to ask her to canter on the right lead.

Anyway.  Enjoy the read, and I highly recommend DC's regular blog whenever you need to feel like there is someone more cynical than you out there in the world.