May is about as non-mareish as I think a mare gets. You know how I know she is in heat? She winnies every now and then when we are on a trail ride by ourselves. There is no carrying on, there is just a “hey everyone, I am over here. ok?” kind of noise. However, May does have attitude. Sometimes, it feels like pony-tude, but we are a few inches too tall for that.
Case and point? On Thursday, I was chatting with a girl at the barn who was riding a horse other than her own. Turns out, she was having some issues with her own horse and was pretty down about it. This is a very accomplished rider (let’s call her PR), who has run a few prelims, so I gleefully offered her a turn on May. We laughed about it, as she hopped off the other horse and tried to get on May. She asked if there was anything to be aware of, and I told her she might test her a bit, but as long as you got control of the body, you wouldn’t have to fight a lot with her legs and hands.
As soon as she tried to swing on, May took off at the trot and joyfully bounced out of the arena. Welp… PR managed to get on. Still laughing, she headed back into the arena. I told her to try moving May’s body back and forth to establish connection and balance. May trotted, and kept trotting, then walked for 2 steps, then trotted again.
She tried falling behind the bit, jigging with her head in the air, popping her shoulders both to the inside and the outside. Generally, she was just a pill. PR, being a good sport, trotted and cantered her for a while. She even told me May actually seems like a fun ride, right before quickly dismounting and handing her back to me. The comment with the most conviction, “I am not sure how you ride this horse, but I think I need to do more yoga.” I couldn’t even convince PR to jump her, since she couldn’t figure out the steering.
Oh well, it still generated a lot of a laughs for another rider that was going through a rough patch. A couple of days later (after buying a new car!), I hopped on, and all the buttons were exactly where I had left them, so I am not sure if the issue is my riding or May’s attitude. Whatever it is, we made it work.
What about your horse? Do they “object” to being ridden by others?
Haha so funny! May and her attitude! I can just see her being “you are NOT mom.” lol I don’t think it’s May’s attitude. Most of the time I feel it’s just differences in riding and most horses can feel that super quick. I actually have no clue when Amber is in heat. I actually have to lift her tail for that. But she totally half-asses for other people. “Oh, this isn’t mom? Great, I don’t have to work as hard. Sweet.” But the key to riding her is less is more. I let a lady hop on her, and she immediately took up reins and sat a bit back and Amber was like “oh sure I’ll back.” I was a little embarrassed that my horse was just backing and poor lady started kicking her and Amber went back faster. She totally wasn’t being bad – that’s her back cue from western training so….lol. I had to have the lady drop her reins before Amber would walk forward and then the steering was weird…I probably shouldn’t have found it funny but I did. I think it was just different ways of riding because 2 of my other friends and my mom can ride Amber just fine lol. Amber totally knows she can get away with things with them tho (basically she doesn’t spin correctly, she’ll cheat and not be collected at her jog/trot, she won’t steer as well) because it isn’t me haha!
oh yeah. it was a different ride than May was used to. This girl rides almost exclusively thoroughbreds, so I think she wasn’t “finding her seat” as well on WIDE May as she does on her own horses.
Hahaha yes those barrel horses! They’re definitely different lol
haha yay for new cars! I have already put over 1,000 miles on mine.
Mare power for the win! This is too funny. People can get used to a certain kind of horse and it can be hard to completely switch. My mare is much more expressive while in heat than May. And is very expressive the WHOLE time. Squealing, grunting, backing up to things, and…squirting. Gross. Always worse this time of year obviously. And I think worse since I bred her. She wants another baby, I swear!
But we always seem to get our work done!
it’s more.. entertaining than anything. I mean, this is a mare that babysat my old trainer’s 2yo thoroughbred gelding. She just has this one little mare quirk. It’s kind of cute 😉
Lol whoops! I honestly don’t know how Charlie would be with other riders. Nobody is banging down the door begging for a shot, and I generally am kind of possessive of my toys lol. Tho my friend helped keep him on his rehab hacking schedule after surgery when I was away and he was fine for that.
My trainer and I had a conversation last night about how training rides don’t make sense because my trianer will never get the same ride out of May that I do hahaha. Guess I’m stuck with her 😉
My horses like being ridden by other people. Other people rarely like riding them.
Hahaha I think it was a mutual dislike between both of them. Mares ?
I absolutely hate letting people ride my horse unless I trust them 100% (and that list is about 2 people long).
I am yet to let anyone else sit on B haha
I was like “ok this is probably a better rider than me. It’ll be good for her!” May disagreed about any of that ?
Ha! She knows who her person is. That’s awesome. I don’t really let people ride P- I would need a very complete liability form drawn up first. Probably a blood pact that they won’t sue me. And make sure they have an excellent life insurance policy. But my jump trainer gets on him from time to time and P always gives him a hard time at first then goes better for him than for, well, me.
I’ll toss anyone up on Scarlet. Doesn’t mean they will get him to work well but he will more or less politely circle the arena with anyone on his back. Of course, I’m right there to stop people if it goes wrong so I’m not too worried about it.