My Foxy- A New Beginning

After I lost Ricky, I decided I needed a new horse right away, before I had too much time to think about it. I needed to get back up in the saddle as soon as possible.

We looked at several horses the next couple of weeks. I had just looked at this little sorrel mare a friend of ours had for sale. At first sight, I thought she was way too short and I really didn’t want another sorrel, but even through her heavy winter coat, I could tell she was built right. I wasn’t sure about her and so decided to continue looking.

That night I had a dream that I was riding my Ricky. I was team penning, like we always did, and suddenly he was so amazing! He was hooked on the cow better than ever before! My attention went to the ears that were pinned on the cow we were cutting, and instead of Ricky’s dark chestnut ears, I saw little sorrel ears! It was that sorrel mare we had looked at the day before! Okay, I had to buy her..

Yeah, maybe that is a crazy way to decide on my next mount, but it all worked out… eventually.

My friend who sold me Foxy told me that “She never offered to buck.” I don’t know if she ever did offer to buck with him, (being 250#’s and her being about 700#’s) but she went straight up the first time I ever got on her! That was not all,.. She was terrible with her hind end. Anyone who came in striking distance, she would cow kick! She didn’t do any of this, before, when I went to look at her.

Well I have dealt with horses that bucked before, just not ones that were that good at it! This is the point that I really got good at my ground work. Every time I felt her tense up and seen those ears get all pinned back, I would jump off and work her from the ground. I had to get her to flex and disengage, move forward, backwards, and around me until she relaxed. Then I would hop on and try it again. This is the way it went for several months and again every time I had been off her for a while, even still.

Now with the kicking issue, it resolved it’s self. She had gotten an abscess shortly after I brought her home. For some reason she let me soak her foot and doctor her twice daily without any fuss. It took a while for her to trust anyone else to be around her hind end, but she never did it to me again. I think she knew I was helping her. There is no other explanation for it.

Since then Foxy and I have become a great partnership. She has blown me away with her ability to cut a cow out of a herd efficiently. Yes it ended up just like my dream in the end. She is sure footed and confident on the trail, and my daughter won second place in Western Pleasure on her. Now we are working on competing in barrels and poles, and she is doing great! I will let you know in future postings how that goes, and what we learn from it.
Reining (Western Horseman Books)