Why I Love Stinker

I realized that I bitch a lot about my horse (vet bills anyone???), so I figured I would share some of the things that I love about my horse.  He is smart, fun, challenging, and we connect.  Yes, these are some of the things that drive me crazy about him, but he is my little Stinker.

Love this face

It doesn't take him very long to figure out an exercise and he will start anticipating (I am sure I will be complaining about this in the future), but I love his brain (when it is working).  I love being able to feel him process and work through things and when he gets it you can feel it.  It is very rewarding.  On the downside, he can't be left unattended with velcro.  Also, if he doesn't get his turnout, he does things like flip his water bucket, turn his water hose on and flood the barn...all those fun things.

My favorite view

There is never a dull moment with him.  He is super curious, so he is always shoving his nose in something.  But if he sees something scary he snorts and sometimes jumps, but he will always approach it.  The curiosity always wins.  I honestly love to ride him.  When he is on, he feels fabulous.  And I love watching him move (when he isn't braced).  He can always make me smile with his antics and honestly with his shenanigans how can you not love him?

Turn me out!!!!

He is sooo sooo very challenging.  Yes, I hate this some days, but I would be so bored if he did not challenge me.  Every day is like a puzzle trying to figure him out, and I love every minute of it.  Somedays it is ok to put my leg on and other days it will cause a total meltdown.  But he lets me play around and figure out how we can compromise.  Actually, it is more like I figure out how to calm him down and show him my leg isn't going to eat him, because my leg is going to be put on and that isn't up for negotiation.

Always checking new things out...

We click with one another, partially because I see so much of myself in him (how is that for anthropomorphism).  We both overthink things and hate it when we are wrong.  We like to please people.  We get wound up and stuck in our brain.  The list can go on, but I am going to leave it at I am pretty sure D found me in horse form even if she didn't know it at the time.  I am not going to lie getting to the point where he trusted me was a struggle and I was getting very frustrated.  It is hard to do anything with a horse that totally shuts down mentally, but he trusts me and even when his brain is going a million miles an hour he will let me show him what I want.

Rare sleepy face

Honestly, having been through the EPM (well still going, but I feel like we are on an up swing) and the knowing that his hind is may not be able to hold up to the work, I would not go back and choose another horse.  Even if I took what I have spent on the vet and added it to the "purchase" budget, I wouldn't change it.  Sure I have bad days and wonder what if, but I could have bought a much more expensive horse and it have something catastrophic happen to it.  The only guarantee with horses is that there aren't any guarantees.

So cute!