My Dream Horse

I've had Peanut for almost 10 years.  I've learned a lot in this time, but Peanut has also quietly suffered through a lot of my ignorant mistakes with his usual doofy good spirits.  When he did complain proper, I often misunderstood and he would endure.

Today was a trim (his feet are growing like weeds), and directly afterward I tacked him up, puttered around the farm, and took a short jaunt on the trails hoping to head back before the last toe was rasped and I missed the exit of our trimmer.

We definitely had conversations during our ride, but not our drawn out battles.  Mainly we were talking about the fact that his trim - which took a lot off since he had grown so incredibly fast - had left him on the ouchy side on hard or gravelly surfaces.  So, give and take was the order of the day from both sides.  I respected the fact that his feet had just changed a lot, and he respected the fact that sometimes he just had to walk on gravel.

His gaits are suddenly the kind of gaits that I had only read about with Tennessee Walkers - the ones that they are famous for.  I was absolutely gliding, again and again, and it was glorious.  At one point I accidentally had him gait on a slight downhill, which put his weight on his front end, and at only that time did I feel the old, bumpy, uncertain gaits come out.

And it's also very nice to know that the years of lessons hadn't left me as a rank beginner.  I honestly had always thought so.

Every time I encountered a good run of uphill or level path, we were gaiting or cantering.  I just couldn't stop!

The saddle and the lessons to kick my confidence back up have given me the horse I have always dreamed of.  He is a complete silly dork on the ground, and under saddle he is starting to be my partner instead of my adversary.

I keep waiting for everything to go to hell, because this is too good.  How long can this last?

And why am I such a damn pessimist?