Vegas Does the English

Barbie horse

I have toodled around on Vegas a lot this year. Always bareback, always not asking for much. She is the kind of horse that doesn't really care if she works or not. Most of the time, she would rather not, so I haven't worried about her too much. Well, I had this itch to take the mare out and actually put in a working ride.

Cob sized 5-point is almost too small on her. Sigh.

This was the first time I rode her with all of the new eventing tools I have gathered in the past year and a half. She was a pleasure show horse, so she was taught to always be super soft, do not look for contact, travel on a loose rein, etc. So, needless to say, she was super confused when I asked her to move forward into contact. She was trying pretty hard to figure it all out, but she was getting frustrated. I was also asking her to carry her head higher than before, and that was also new.

Trying really hard to get under herself. It is hard when you are built like a weener dog.

I kept laughing because she is sooooo different than riding Bacon. That is probably an obvious statement, but I never really payed attention to that when I messed around on her bareback. She has such a long back, a short neck and is soooo damn wiggly. I don't remember her being that wiggly. She is so heavy on the forehand I feel like I am going to go ass over kettle.  When I made the comment about the difference, he said "Well yeah, you went from riding a giraffe to riding a hippo."

Pretty girl.

Technically, she is not as round as a hippo, and definitely longer than one.

The major difference was as soon as I stopped riding her, she would quit. I had to work so hard to get her to go and try. My leg looks pretty crappy in all of the photos and that is partially because I was really trying to dig my heels into her the whole time. Spurs would have really helped. After riding her, it felt like I had just got done riding at an event derby. And it was only 25 minutes. I was exhausted. I was maybe hoping to take her to the jumper show this weekend to ground poles and maybe cross rails, but I think I am going to skip that idea. She was always so reliable at all of her other shows and I can always hop on her and just go, but I am not really setting her up for success there.

Oh, it was awkward.

I think she looks best in her western tack. She was bred to be a cutter, and she most certainly looks more the part of that than anything else. That is not to say I won't be riding her in the english get up, but one day I want to take her out and test out her cow. She is still pretty cute though!

This is a little bit more appropriate.