#1 - Horses are pretty smart. I was looking at a photo of a young horse jumping a liverpool, and thinking how cool it is that some greenies are brave enough to just hop right on over whatever is asked. Neat. But, you have these intro eventing horses, also faced with the question of water. When it comes down to it, a big enough GP sized liverpool is approximately the size of those little BN water questions. How on earth do they differentiate between jumping over the blue thing on the sand and going through the water in the field? It's not how we ride it, because lets face it, either question we are probably riding the crap out of it so they never get that thought in their mind to stop at such a thing. I really find it interesting, and I definitely give them props for figuring it out. After all, we are these strange two legged creatures that want to piggy-back for an hour or so daily....who's idea was that anyway?
#2 I was having a conversation with the one and only H. Hurd the other day about fitness and starting babies. In his opinion he says that horses are at their physical prime at 4 years old, but mentally and performance peak doesn't come until much older, I think he was saying somewhere around 14, I honestly probably drifted into my head and was off thinking of my athletically primed 4yo TB's one that is fresh off the track and the other that has THANK SWEET BABY JESUS never even got a whiff of the place, she would have been a monster (or came back a saint and appreciative) had she gotten there.
A friend of mine and I were riding this evening, even though it was a Monday, after a weekend off because of the show, the babies had to work. We are in a completely controlled environment, insulated indoor, doors closed, two people quiet barn, and they might as well have heard the freaking racing horns because they were definitely feeling good. A couple of months ago, the filly learned WHOA, so I sat in the middle of the arena watching my friend flying around the indoor, thinking back to that time when the breaks were $#^& and we were in a similar position....Then I got to thinking about how sometimes you just feel like the human lunge line....I mean, they have to learn and once your in a situation you have to finish it, or they learn to get away with things. So it this: "my dear horse, meet MY dear friend the 20m circle, eat-it, breathe-it, sleep-it, because one way or the other you'll listen one day" and whether your on the ground or on their backs there you go. So today I have dubbed the age 4 as the "human lunge line" year. So much can get accomplished on a 20m circle....
So that is my story time for now...A bit ramble-y but I am tired and ready to sleep off that horse show weekend.