Fee Fi Fo Fum, I'm an Oooogre!

When I was working out the trade between PJ and Too, BO told me that one of her horse trader friends really wanted PJ for her daughter. She knew his breeder and had always loved him. She said she could try to find me a nice Arab or a cute pony similar to Marco, and we could trade. I felt pretty awful about it, but I really wanted Tooey and went through with the trade for the mare. A week or two later, Horse Trader Friend brought a pony out that BO purchased from her to eventually put in the lesson program. She pulled this cute little buckskin mare off the trailer, and while we stood there awkwardly waiting for BO to come out of the house, HTF asked me if I'd "traded PJ off." I awkwardly blabbed that, yes, I had, I'd gotten a chunky little TB cross and we were having so much fun, I was enjoying her, blah blah blah, and HTF eyeballed the cute buckskin pony, and gave me a small, barely discernable smile that could only be described as...smug. Sort of...well, you could have had this cute little buckskin pony if only you had done business with me. In yo' faaace!

I looked at the pony and thought, Crap! I could have had this cute little buckskin pony! 

She was a little puny, a little thin, a little long in the back, six years old and just shy of 14hh, had a horrible haircut that (I am sorry to offend!) many western people seem to do; you know the one. Have scissors, will cut...straight across. And voila! Razor sharp bowl cut! But boy was she cute! BO told me to throw her in the round pen for a minute while she and HTF worked out business. As I was walking her over, she followed me quietly and I was thinking, man oh man I could have HAD THIS PONY! Walked her into the round pen, turned her around and she nearly plowed over me to get back out of the pen. Hey now, rudeypants, don't be an ogre! 

Her name was obvious... Fiona.

You know...

A pretty pretty princess...

Who is an OGRE! (couldn't find a sufficiently ogre-ish picture of Fiona)

For a while, getting Fiona to move forward under saddle was a trial. BO had asked me if I would be willing to ride the pony to get her ready for the kids, and I said of course, I will ride any pony you have! I don't regret having Tooey, but ponies really are so much fun and I missed having a little pony to scoot around on. However, Fiona didn't do much scooting. She sucked back like nothing I have ever ridden before. I would ask for a trot, get a few steps of trot, and then suddenly be on her ears when she hit the breaks. Trot on a few steps, suck back. Trot on a few steps, pin ears, prop, pin ears some more, kick kick kick the pony, grudging trot... Six years old, but still very green and not ever made to go forward off the leg. The first morning I rode her, it was forty-five degrees outside, and when our ride was done, I brought her back into the barn, pulled off my sweater, and dumped ice cold water on my head, and did my best to not black out. I told myself when I rode Too that afternoon, I would throw my arms around her neck and praise her and her forward movement and the lack of asthma attacks I get while riding her. After several rides, I had her moving along and even doing some semblance of a canter.  

Fiona was at our barn two or three weeks when I got the plague from Boyfrand. An entire week is pretty much blank in my memory, except long periods of coughing and sneezing and pounding pressure in my skull. When I came back to work the next week, BO asked me to put in a short ride on Fi. I don't really remember tacking her up; everything was still sort of hazy at this point, but I figured the worst that could happen was the ogre pony took advantage of me and we reverted back to lazy, non-forward for a ride.

While I had been sick, Fi also came down with a tiny cough, and BO had the vet put her on antibiotic pills to squash it before it turned into a full blown respiratory issue. We also had worked up her feed intake, and she was finally being fed enough and was gaining a little weight. The combination of being properly fed and having some medicine wipe out whatever the pony undoubtedly had had in her system when she got to our barn made Fiona feel gooooooooood. Puny, slightly underweight Fiona was pokey and needed a strong ride. Healthy Fiona was forward (mostly) and....bucked.

She almost had me. I was in a daze and not expecting pokey puny Fiona to have any spit in her. I corrected her and we moved on. She was definitely a little sour on the side of the ring near the mares' pasture, and to this day, that is still the side of the ring where she gives me issues. She still throws a buck now and then, but usually her M.O. with me is attempted intimidation. Don't you hate when you're riding a big horse and he pins his ears, bows up his back and snakes his head down? On a tiny horse, it isn't so scary, just annoying. One warning squawk from me and she usually goes on without trying anything, but definitely probes at the boundaries every once in a while. She'll need a lot of wet saddle pads before she's really ready for the lesson program, but now that she actually MOVES, I'm kinda having fun with her.

(Still like my mare better, though)

Typical "you can't make me" moment

Effing sideways AGAIN! She's a cute little mover, though. We're just letting her plug along with her nose in the air for the time being. Starting to work on it a bit more now that she's had her teefs done.

She has the most hilarious ears.