Sophie Monster

There can be much drama where I board. Some of it is not relevant to me at all, and I do my best to just ignore it. Some of it does directly affect me, and I do my best to handle it like a grown up, even though I want to basically throw stuff around, load up the horses, and hit the road..

However, being annoyed by the barn drama feels a little hypocritical, because much drama at the barn also originates from a blonde pony. More specifically, an adorable blonde pony I happen to own.

Doesn't stand still for photos very often. on the plus side, she gets Bridget moving too every once in a while/

She's generally very sweet and respectful of people, but oh my, does she play hard and have an excess of energy. She's hard enough on things that I've been budgeting an hour once a week to repair/replace things she breaks. First victim: fence boards (and yes, there is electric wire up too, but her kicks as she's running and bucking are deadly accurate). Also, at this point she's smashed numerous water buckets. I've ordered some tub trugs from the UK so hopefully that solves that problem.

 More recently, she bent two tie rings in the grooming area.  Barn owner is not impressed. I'm not impressed. Pony ties, until she decides she's done. She's never escaped on my watch, but I suspect she must have at some point in her life, because it's not panicky jumping around/scared of pressure, it's pretty deliberate "OK I am bored now, pay attention to me" sitting on her bum and setting back against the halter/tie. A smack on the bottom gets her to step back up, but yep, I foresee a lot of standing tied all by herself and being patient in her future. Also, I foresee some new tie rings in my budget. I feel like I need to put out to the universe that I'm grateful that the barn owner continues to tolerate my little monster of a 2 year old pony!

Zoom

Yesterday, G volunteered to walk the sassy pony to the ring while I rode Bridget. He's super with Sophie, so I never say no if he wants to take her for a walk. Yesterday, although she was trying to keep a lid on her excess energy, there was the perfect storm in that the metal recycler guy was using his forklift and dropped a big pallet of used propane bottles on the road, one of which started hissing. (Have I mentioned this guy before? He's super nice, but clueless about horses. He randomly has this little area right on the side of the road, on farmland, where people take scrap metal to him. He loads it in a truck parked on the road and I think drives it to the city to recycle. This operation involves a big rattley truck, an ancient forklift, and metal shipping containers that he's usually inside rummaging around as we ride by. Often he's using the forklift to dump stuff in the shipping containers as we ride by. It's loud! He's the best at bombproofing my horses. He also owns a field elsewhere he lets me ride in, so I never complain!)

On the plus side, you'll notice she pretty much ALWAYS has at least an ear or an eye tipped towards me, and is super people oriented in general, so I have a lot of hope this energy will be funneled towards good things in the future.

Anyway, back to to dropped load of hissing propane bottles lying in the road. At that point I turned around and Sophie was past the recycling place but rearing and jumping up and down beside G. Not in his space or anything, but still not cool, so I traded G for Bridget and Sophie and I had a little chat about manners being a thing no matter how much energy you're itching to burn off, or how "scary" the world is (she's actually very brave and curious, and been by the recycling guys place a million times,  so the 'scary' was just an excuse to be silly). She was a little angel for him after that, go figure.

So sorry, please don't hate me.

I've been taking her to the arena once a week or so while I ride Bridget, and sticking her in the round pen to wait for us and learn patience (G calls it the penalty box, which is oddly appropriate, lol). Its really hard for her, because she is all about being the center of our attention. There's consistently about 5-10 minutes of rodeo, screaming, and pony losing her mind and having a temper tantrum, because no one is paying any attention to her. That's immediately followed by standing at the gate and making super sad submissive baby pony faces when she sees you. So, so sorry she is, please let's be friends again. It's a sad, sad, life. Fingers crossed the tantrums disappear as time goes on. I have a feeling they will. I just ignore her, and Bridget isn't one to call back or react to her in any way, so basically she's not getting any reward.

Banana colored at the moment, her coat is already coming in lighter for the winter. I was at a dressage clinic years ago and there was a nice little palomino pony who had the typical beige-y off white winter palomino coat. I don't know exactly why, but when the kid told Steffen Peters her pony was named Mayo, I got the giggles and just couldn't even. I want my own off  white pony called Mayo. No one else thinks it's as hilarious as me, so Sophie she remains. 

It's all just silly baby stuff, and honestly she is a super baby to deal with, and not actually a monster at all. She's just lacking the mental maturity of a grown up pony, and makes bad choices sometimes, lol. The joy of owning youngsters!  I don't think she's ever going to be quiet or easy in the traditional sense, but she's very kind and wants to please, so we'll be fine. I'm really looking forward to riding her and having her in a proper program...I think she's going to thrive once she's physically mature enough to have a proper job to funnel that energy towards.