Do Things Happen For A Reason?

As a person, I'm not superstitious, religious, or driven by the idea that the fates completely govern us, but sometimes I like to think that things happen for a reason. Maybe the universe gives us a little nudge here or there to keep us on a certain directed course. I'm willing to let myself believe in that a little bit.

Pax's pending sale fell through this week. I know the prospective owner is sad about that, because she definitely wanted it to work, but with her lease horses all unexpectedly coming home at the same time she is squeezed for space. Maybe in the future she will be able to try again, but honestly, I'll have put a bigger price tag on her by that time. And by that I mean, she's still not technically for sale but the more time I put into her, the more money she will be worth. 

Since P didn't take this year and we stopped trying, I was feeling really lousy about the fact that I had gotten P specifically as a broodie and now was going to have absolutely nothing to show for it. My baby was sold, she was not successfully bred this year, and I didn't really have any other plans to breed her further. It sucked. But then Pax's sale fell through. And I started to wonder.... maybe things all happen a certain way for a reason? Maybe I'm meant to keep Pax, if only just for the time being. 

With that in mind, I decided it was time that Pax gets some more worldly experience. If I am really going to keep her, then it is time to start exposing her more to the world at large. 

Note to self: find halter that actually fits her china doll face

Yes, that's old Pmare I'm riding! Since she is not pregnant and not doing anything else, I decided it was high time to put her butt back into light duty work as a trail horse and primarily as a pony horse that can drag other horses around for exercise. In the past, P has always been my go-to pony horse, because she's sturdy, bossy, not bothered by anything whatsoever. She just plows on forward no matter what the ponied horse is doing. The last time I ponied Pax, it was a number of months ago, and she was still too young and mentally immature to take it at all seriously - there was a ton of rearing, striking, bucking, and running involved and I wasn't terribly keen to fight off flailing baby hooves while I was riding. I wasn't sure what she was going to do this time, but she is 15 months now and significantly more mentally mature than she was several months ago, so I figured it was a good shot with Pmare as my pony horse. 

P had not had a saddle on in about two years and she was not very happy about it. I got a few Very Dirty Looks, but I knew once she got out on the trail she would be more cheerful. I think she must have had a few girths cranked on too hard and fast in her past, because when I got her she used to bite the trailer kind of savagely whenever you'd tighten the girth. A few scoldings and a more carefully applied girth stopped that habit, but she'll always remember it. 

The first five minutes of the ride were total chaos. P was a complete cow and reared, spun, and jigged, nearly clotheslining me off a couple of time with her own child's leadrope. I had to actually dismount and lead her off the road for a minute because she was stopping traffic. She did settle down, thankfully, and I was able to get a gauge on her soundness as we went along. She is definitely not sound whatsoever - she is totally fine at the walk, but when she gets into her little shuffley jogging trot, she feels like riding a cripple gaited horse. Part of this is because she's just completely out of shape and has no muscle tone whatsoever. She historically has been at her worst when she gets into that dinky little jog, and has always gone a lot better when trotting forward, but there is no real need for us to be doing that at the moment. She'll be quite fine for easy trail rides, but I'll probably give her some bute before each one to help lessen her soreness as she gets back into shape. For this particular ride, we only went about half a mile, and then came back home. 

Pax though? Pax was PERFECT. She was not worried about anything. She was even a bit lazy and didn't want to keep full up with her speedwalking mother for a bit. Waiting a few additional months for her to mature before trying this again was SO helpful. I think she'll be on the slow side to mentally mature, but that's quite all right. A lot of warmbloods are. But I think it's SO important to get young horses out and seeing things. It just makes everything about them that much more able to handle weird stuff when they see it in the future. 

So what is this next year going to be like for Pax, since she is staying? All of the same things on the ground. Being ponied out on the trails and traveling to various locations for trail rides off property. I decided not to do any FEH stuff with her this year because a) I felt she was too mentally immature, and b) I thought she was sold!, but next year I will plan to do the two year old in-hand division of the FEH. Who knows? Maybe she'll be my event horse one day. It could happen!

Pax says, I'm a good baby. Just don't stick your fingers in my ears or else.