Scapegoating: Blaming your Steed

I'm about fed up with people scapegoating specific horses for human error inadequacies. It happens regularly and at least once a year I need to have a major PR mission for a horse that is frustrated with all of us stupid humans.

This time I want to focus on Mr. Spock. This is our appaloosa mule who came out of very scary circumstances in a slaughter auction. He's only 6 years old (a baby for a mule) and has obviously been beaten and abused prior to his rescue. He's been here a couple years and has come SO FAR and is kind and sweet with a good work ethic but still requires people to pay attention to him when they ride.

A lot of riders here are spoiled by my horses and no matter how many times I catch them and remind them they still often:

• lead horses with a long lead rope and open hand, expecting that the horse will follow them anywhere on the planet without question. 
• mount with loose reins thinking that no matter what bomb goes off the horse will stay put
• let their reins go slack when the horse is standing still, even when myself or an instructor needs to mess with some tack or adjustments
• not look where they are going when riding or staying present
• riding with legs off when everything is going well (so what happens if that suddenly changes, huh?)

Get in the habit of doing it right on the easy horses because quite frankly, Spock is a pretty darned easy ride if you aren't slacking off or distracted. Don't scapegoat the teacher who shows your flaws and then glorify the ones who cover up for your mistakes because those teachers are the ones that help you become better.

The World from Spock's Point of View

Spock had another de-spockle debacle yesterday. He's getting tired of training these stupid humans.
On his first date with my new instructor she had him out on trail and he tripped (he needs his feet trimmed) and she didn't stay with him so he went down the trails without her - obviously she wasn't useful anyhow if she wasn't going to stay on and he didn't know her anyways.

He decided to cut that trail ride a little short anyhow because he might as well go home now. So he trotted slowly down the trail to home where I was there to meet him and he rushed right into my arms and was like "Okay, this human is alright. She at least is only stupid half the time." So I jumped on and figured I would return him to his trail ride and he was a perfect gentleman.

I dismounted and waved to the girls that I brought them back their mule, but then I tripped and Spock was again like "Stupid human, if you can't even pay attention to me and stay on your own feet I have no need of you either. I'm going home." And off he slowly trotted home again being sure not to step on the reins by holding them off to the side. I definitely didn't do as a good job of holding his reins for him.

We we walked home and grabbed him. The instructor then figured at least some arena work would be good, but she forgot to close the gate. Spock and I agree that it's a horrible habit to do arena work with the gate open, so he showed her why before she got on so that nothing bad happened.
Finally he had taught us all of our lessons and was the perfect gentleman for some trotting and cantering in the arena.

The instructor and I were both all giggles the entire time because we both know that it is our weaknesses that set him up for failure.

MORAL OF THE STORY: don't be complacent.