Drama Drama Drama

Oh. My. God. Can you say UNBELIEVABLE?????

Got up early and went riding with all but one of the gals from yesterday (Linda has her knee in a brace and has to work Monday so being extra cautious). And I took Katie for me to ride, and Jasmine for Rachel to try, as if that horse from yesterday had worked out I was going to return her to Jean or move her along...

Ok let me backtrack here. Jasmine is a beautiful mare and I LOVE riding her. She breathes really loud and every time I take her out someone ends up asking me "What's wrong with her?" Well there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her, even the vet didn't find anything when he did the paperwork for the San Diego trip, but she huffs and puffs like a freight train! I though it was because she was out of shape, but I have worked her a lot over the past few months - started slow and easy and built her up - and put her on a diet and she is looking much better! Her ground manners left a lot to be desired, she had no concept of personal space - and unfortunately, despite constant work on them, she has gotten worse instead of better. I really DO love riding her, but saddling and unsaddling keeps me dancing so she doesn't step on me, and to top it all off, when corrected in the way I was taught - give a sharp tug on the halter and firmly tell her to STAND - she will set back and Saturday night after our moonlight ride she set back so bad she broke the rope and ran to the pasture fence with one boot still on! The ad for the free horse popping up Monday seemed an omen to me, and I thought if she worked out, Jasmine would have to go. It nagged at me all week though, and I decided that if I was willing to move Jasmine along if I got the free horse, then she wasn't the right horse for me and I should move her along regardless. I will admit I feel bad about this BUT I am 49 years old, and I am the first to say I am totally spoiled by Paint Mare and Katie and how well they have always behaved... Could I work on Jasmine's manners and probably fix them eventually? Yeah. Do I want to? Not so much. I still have young Luna to deal with and since I bred her I don't feel selling her is an option, I have a responsibility for bringing her into this world. I don't feel the same about a horse I bought, so if one goes, it is not going to be Luna. Rachel has also liked her since I got her, so I asked but she already has a horse and so declined. I made arrangements to return her to my friend Jean, no hard feelings, she had told me from day 1 to try her as long as I liked and if it didn't work out, to bring her back... then Friday Rachel contacted me and said she couldn't stop thinking about Jasmine and she DID want to try her after all. So another phone call to Jean and all is worked out, Jasmine will go to Rachel for a 30-day trial. Rachel is quite a bit younger than me and doesn't have quite the load I have so hopefully she will have more time to work on the ground manners... and yes, I realize that at some point in the future I may very well be kicking myself for letting Jasmine go, but right now I feel this is the right decision so that is that.

ANYWAY! We had a lovely ride and Rachel was excited to load Jasmine into her trailer and take her home. We had a lovely lunch at El Encanto Dos YUM and then we all headed home. I got a text saying that Jasmine was IN LOVE with Reggie, Linda's gaited gelding, which is good news since the two gaited horses will be living together and riding together a lot. And later I got a picture of the two of them e-mailed to me, which I forwarded to Jean as well.

Oh yeah, and the drama? Get this... checking the "free horse" thread on the forum when I got home, I find that another gal, a neighbor of those folks, went over and rode her today, she behaved perfectly and there are pictures... and both the owners and the neighbor are making remarks about how WE scared the mare, bandying words like inexperienced around... saying what do you expect from a free horse, you were told she hadn't been ridden in 4 months, and trying to make like this horse is perfect and her behavior from the day before was all our fault!

I simply said that I was very glad that the neighbor gal had not gotten hurt, and that I would stand by my statement that this horse is not safe as is and needs a lot of work, and to be careful... There is no doubt in my mind that if that gal had seen that horse blow up on Saturday, she would NOT have gotten on. But because she knows the people, she is believing their description - remember, a "poppin' and fartin' episode" - well those of you who know horses know that there is a HUGE difference between a little BKF* happy dance and full out nasty bucking...

Things really blew up from there. Lots of people who don't know me at all saying all kinds of derogatory things... the kind of situation where you feel the need to defend yourself because none of what they are saying is true, and someone is going to get hurt... but the more you talk the worse it gets, and finally I gave up. Despite the FACT that none of those people were there, and of the 7 that were, the 5 who did not OWN the horse were shocked and appalled at the whole situation, it seems they have made up their minds... except quite interestingly the folks who removed themselves from the list after my post yesterday have not changed their minds... at least not publicly.

I am still shuddering from time to time thinking how badly I could have been hurt yesterday and yes, still reeling from the "verbal" nastiness stemming it. I hope I can sleep tonight!!!

*For those that don't know, BKF is short for bucking, kicking, farting - and our equine behavior professor, years ago, called that their happy dance - when you turn out a horse and it goes a little nuts, kinda like a person screaming WAHOOOOOOO! And yes if you were ON a horse when they did that, you would probably still go off - hey I did, last summer, when I was dumb and asked Luna to lope when she was fresh and raring to go... but that kind of "bucking" wears off quick when you do a little lunging. There was no happy dance in that mare Saturday, she was flat out hateful and bucking like she was going to REMOVE that saddle no matter what... it was no less than a rodeo bronc or a young horse saddled for the first time and protesting violently...