Update on Trip.

And you guys might not like it!

But first my ride on Bobby which ties into my ride on Trip. The punk ass boys were alllll the way at the back of their field so I used one of the handy xcountry jumps to get on Bobby and he carted me back down the hill. That is until.....

"what's that noise?!"

We rounded the bend and saw.....

"OMG, FIRE!"

Obviously the barn wasn't on fire or I wouldn't have stopped to mug with Robert, but one of the workers had a burn pile going that was snapping and popping and Bobby was quite certain he was headed in there next.

I tried him in the loose ring french link with a round bean-like thing in the middle. Bobby hated it. Absolutely despised it. He was all, "Hellllll no!" Lined up for us to try next are: Happy Mouth mullen loose ring, an eggbutt with a flat piece french link, and a straight bar rubber mouth loose ring. Finding a good bit is turning out to be even harder than finding a saddle! Instead of forcing the issue when he clearly hated this bit, I walked him around for a bit while I talked to BO about Trip.

Here's his back story: He was started by a girl named Kristy. The trainer loved him and didn't understand why she wanted to get rid of him because of how nice he goes. But apparently she and him just didn't click and she didn't like him. He's a mild cribber and he has a pretty large wind puff in his RH. BO said that the girl that rode him the other day in the outdoor had jumped him and he was great, but she didn't think he'd done a course before.

I decided to take Bobby for a trail ride and bring Trip along with me to see how he handled himself.

He was a little snorty and looky, but overall fed off of Bobby who was happy to amble along and the whole ride was pretty chill. We ran into a ton of deer and turkeys, but Bobby barely turned an ear at them so Trip was content to snort at them and move along.

deer with no zoom. they're clearly terrified of horses.

We walked the whole way for about a forty five minute ride. Maybe it's because his feet are too long right now, but Trip was tripping all over himself. No self awareness or self preservation. Especially since Bobby had to let him know who was boss and walked him into a few trees when we first set out.

Since I let on to BO that I might be interested in buying him, I decided to take him to the outdoor and try his paces for real to see if I really wanted to commit. His canter is lovely and balanced and he steps right into it from both the trot and walk. He moves off the leg nicely, but he really is very fussy with his mouth. Bobby's 2'6 course from yesterday had been knocked down to 2' so I trotted him up to one of the verticals. His approach was very, very wiggly and he stopped a few strides out. I gave him a good squeeze and he half trotted/half walked over it. I don't know how it even stayed up. I tried twice more with the same results: very crooked and squirmy on the approach, petered out before the fence even with a lot of leg, and clunked over it with no real effort. Not too impressed.

he does look pretty cute in my micklem though.

I have the luxury of being able to put in a few more rides on him, but....I don't think I'm going to take the plunge. I don't want to start over from square one with another green bean and he's going to need a lot of straight up physical body work before he can even get down to hard work under saddle. If I could afford a second horse, I'd be all over him. But selling Bobby in exchange for Trip? I can't do it. I'd rather keep plugging away with Mr Magee for now.

I'm working on a new show schedule that is going to focus on doing a whole lot of dressage shows with a few HT and CT thrown in. There are a ton of local dressage shows around and each test is only $20. I think what Bobby needs most right now is exposure and I can't justify a $80+ entry fee plus $150+ in gas for a horse trial when he gets so frazzled away from home. Plus, you can never have too much dressage, right? Well....some might argue otherwise.