Mirror, Mirror

I've heard a lot of horse trainers say that your horse mirrors you. Their personality, vices, actions...albeit, they may be simplified versions, they are still mirrors. I think about this quite a bit when I ride and work with Forrest. I have to say I like what I see. He's always happy and ready to go to work. He gives 110%, even when he's unsure of what it is I'm asking. This doesn't mean he's perfect. He's also extremely opinionated and high strung at times. Well, most of the time. I work hard. Both with training my horse, and at my jobs. I am a better worker than I am a student in most cases. I try to do my best when learning new things. I could probably work a little harder than at the happy-go-lucky attitude. It's funny how good matches work out between horse and rider.

Back to Basics

So, I guess I'm back to my original plan that I had when I was in high school. I wanted to be a mechanic. I took three years of auto shop and loved it. Who doesn't like tearing apart engines and learning to repack wheel bearings, change brakes and replace radiators?! Unfortunately my dad and step mom weren't as thrilled about my idea for a career choice as I was so it didn't happen. Instead I decided to go to the local JC to major in Large Animal Science. I did okay, for the most part. Well, for the Animal Science classes I did, not so much the general ed portion(You actually had to show up to the classes to pass, who knew!). I did get into Montana State, and was relatively excited to go (they have an AWESOME equine science program). Buuut I didn't get around to getting financial aid in time (okay, honestly, I just wanted to go to get out of CA, not go to school), so I ended up not being able to go. Damn. But, the more I though about it, the less I really wanted to go to school for another 5 years for a career I was less than excited about. So I went back to looking at technical schools. I learn better hands on anyways. Plus, I enjoy working with my hands and taking things apart and putting them back together to try to make it work again. And I'd much rather work on Diesels than with livestock and horses...and their owners. Mostly their owners (people in the horse industry are absolutely INSANE). So now I'm enrolled to start at UTI in the fall for their Diesel program. Now I'm just waiting to get all the ducks in a row for the financial aspect of it. But that's okay, I have two ex-racehorses that can always use some work. Forrest, my own "flashy" bay pony, and Kiddo, a reaaalllyy nice gray gelding. Forrest is becoming one of those horses you can do anything with. We're starting on barrels, roping, reining, hopefully in the near future, cow work. He'll even go swimming. Kiddo is just coming back from a bowed tendon, so we're just walking for now. And learning how to stop and turn (racehorses don't really know how to do these things. Horse racing is similar to NASCAR, straight-a-ways with big left turns). But he's starting to pick up neck reining pretty quick, which is always nice. Not bad for an OTTB! Forrest's first time in the lake. Handsome Kiddo!