Indulge me

I just love this horse. Rock is my special girl, even though most of the rest of the world hates her for her quirks. I sometimes call her names--but then again, sometimes she calls me names. You can see her age here above her eyes, but she sure does not scream out that she is a 1982 mare, does she?
Can you see the cloud in her eye here? I love this photo, for some reason. I took it tonight from a distance and liked how it came out--finally I got the dang lighting right! I do not think it is obvious at all that she cannot currently see the broad side of the barn out of that thing--which makes these recent successes with Madison even more significant to me. After all, this lack of vision is a new thing for her and she is absolutely working it out.
This is part one of what you should be indulging on me here--I am trying to be artsy and take the damn detail pics. It was kind of fun taking pics of her bath--she earned it after her workout tonight---she loves some water like I have never seen (other than her daughter Cash who will still put her whole self in a water trough, at age 6).
Ok, you can see some age here in her topline getting low. But hey, that is what they make those built-up cut back pads for, isn't it? I gave her Grandpa's, God knows he is not using it, standing around eating me out of house and home.
Madison gave her the bath--she actually did everything tonight---untacked her, groomed her before and after, and bathed her. I did not even tell her to, she just did it. She is learning the whole picture.
Indulge me #2: I realize I just put up Madison riding Rock pics, but I have more. And it is my blog, so if you do not want to see them, just move along. I do, and I know Madison does, she is psyched about getting new pics for her scrapbook. I do not know what they are looking at here, but I had them ride in the empty front pasture while I mowed a section that is getting out of control with burdock again. I wanted to be handy in case she needed me, but I also wanted to give her some space to see how brave she would be, and let her feel some authority of her own, and some independence. This was after she trotted over some ground poles etc, a first time they have done that.
Rock was an angel tonight, she was so excited to ride again ( you do not know how many people will laugh at seeing Rock and angel in the same sentence). She trotted right off, instead of having to be convinced, which is often the case with a child rider on her. When she is happy, she flaps her bottom lip and makes a smack smack smack sound--it is one of the best sounds--she flapped away tonight. When she is irritated, she growls, and I did not hear a single growl at all.

I stayed out of the way and watched Madison practice trotting, as I clicked away and mowed the incessant burdock. I was afraid to turn away to mow the other direction in case I missed something, or she needed me.
I do not know who I am kidding. She did not need me. Trotting is still relatively new to Madison, but man has she taken to it. It helps that Rock has a great trot, especially for a fat old cutting horse. Even I can work her trot, and everyone knows I am damn near disabled when it comes to sitting a trot without needing a doctor visit afterward. Rock has about 40 speeds of trot, and whether Madison realized she was rating her or not, she was---and the look on her face when she got some speed out of her was a hoot. She was thrilled, but she was also concentrating very hard--I was so proud of her.

Something that is cool about Rock is that she has figured out that Madison is just learning the tricks and to use her leg. She is letting Madison direct rein her without giving her any shit about it, and seems to know when Madison is ready to step it up a notch and move out a bit. They did small figure eights, and turn arounds and just generally played, which is what I want to see. It takes a lot to feel comfortable and safe, and that just takes time time and more time (even if you are a kid who does not have the good sense to know you are going to get hurt in this game, one way or the other---and all kids are like that). Madison has amazingly good horse sense though, which makes it seem like she has done this forever and she just has not.
See look here at the two serious parties--Madison is adjusting her reins--and she is already comfortable using two reins like we always do, and never wants them knotted like she did just over the winter. She is coming along so well, I cannot stand it. Rock is chilling waiting for the next event, having already been lined out by Madison on standing still when you are told to.


I even have another good shot or two--Madison showing her little sister Aly how to ride Rock--she had her first tour on one of our horses--she is a little squirt and it was a three-man operation to make it as safe as possible. Aly was almost mute which is something I never thought I would see!