About a year after I met Griffy, I was hanging out with his owner J. and she casually said “So I know you’ve been having fun with Griffy, but, I don’t think he’s the right horse for you.”

“He is.” I said confidently.

“I don’t think he’ll do mounted archery,” she said.

“He will.” I replied.

“He’s not a very forward horse,” she said. I smiled.

“I love a lazy horse!” I told her.

She laughed. “Ok, you convinced me.”

I realized later she was trying to make sure I didn’t feel pressured to buy him because she’s my friend. Little did she realize I knew from the 3rd week we were together that he was going to be my horse. But while I was absolutely certain that he was perfect, what she said was true – he isn’t a very forward horse.

At least, he wasn’t.

Fast forward to now after we’ve finally got past all his medical issues and it turns out my slow, lazy, plodding haflinger has a jet engine. He used to trot like a sullen teenager – tossing his head in protest, breaking gait constantly into either a walk or a canter. Looking back I know that he was trying his best despite being in pain, which breaks my heart. Now that the pain is gone, it turns out he has a motor that kicks on sometimes and I’m just not ready to ride the bullet train.

Yesterday after two days off he was raring to go. We’ve been doing a lot of walk work; I was really surprised when C. said we were going to canter. I honestly had kind of forgotten that was a thing we did. Ok…deep breath, sit back, outside leg back and…go! WAIT NOT THAT FAST. He launched into a canter that I was totally not ready for, and as I tried to slow him down he changed into the most rapid fire trot I’ve ever seen from him. C. is really big on not holding him back – he’s spent so long fighting being in pain, when he wants to go, let him go!

Right.

So we are rocketing around the ring, and our steering is…not the best, and I’m getting flustered and panicking a little, and he is just gogogogogo… I thought for sure he was going to run into the archery lane (not down the lane but into the actual fence – which is really just T-posts with tape but still) so I ended up jerking him into a corner and almost charged him into a metal fence which is arguably worse, but at least he stopped. Afterwards C. pointed out that we were fine the whole time, and there was never any real danger, and I know she’s right, but man. While I am super, super happy he’s not in pain anymore….sometimes I miss my lazy horse!

Today we had another lesson and I was so ready. I spent the night reviewing reels about canter departs. We went over steering, we took some deep breaths, we asked for the trot and….it was beautiful. Perfect. Energetic but not runaway, light, free, and totally not terrifying. I was actually a little disappointed. But not for long because who was that trotting figure 8’s through the arena like he’s never had an off day in his life?