The One Where Pandora Becomes a "Big Girl"

Year three for Pandora proved to be rough for her. Maybe more so for me. But it included her having to actually haul me around for a bit. And learning how to accept the bit. And how to steer and stop and make some transitions. But you know what? She did pretty well considering.

This was the first horse I had started so I was a bit concerned. But Blake had saddled her a lot and done a lot with her on the ground, so she was pretty OK with me being on her.

We didn't do too much. I didn't want to put much strain on her little legs, so most of our sessions were about 20 minutes long. I am really hoping this year we can get started on more, and actually throw in some reining crap. She is already listening to my seat, so I know this girl has a sliding stop in there somewhere. She is quite difficult to train because she thinks she already knows what we are doing once we get started. So, that makes it very hard to progress when the little fart thinks she already knows how to do the rollback because she already did it once.

I think I forgot to mention that Pandora is also a mastermind at escaping. She knows how to open gates, with or without chains, and busted through the wooden fence before. Luckily, she never runs and is easily captured. The neighbor found her down the road at 4am once, and put his arm around her and walked her back home. The time she busted through the fence, I went home sick from work luckily and pulled up to the little roan horse running in the road. She recognized my truck and followed me down the driveway. I wrapped my sweatshirt around her and led her into the arena.

She has probably released herself from her "prison" about 10 times now. A few times she ate herself a whole bale of straight alfalfa. Them smart horses sure are hard to figure out...

Angry cowhorse face!

Whoa Pandy-Lou!