Last Sunday, Misty's lessor was planning on schooling cross country near me at Inavale. I scheduled an interested buyer to come and see her. I have to say, I'm about ready to give up on selling this horse and just keep her already. I absolutely adore her and she's fantastic and trying to sell her sucks. I don't have time for two horses... But still.
The person that came to see her was so rude. The lessor is notoriously late and slow to get ready. I warned the group that came of this. They said nothing about time constraints. SH joked with them about how she was slow as mud getting ready, and asked the girl some questions. She never came over to say hi to Misty or asked any of her own questions. Misty's rider was having trouble with the studs but was just about ready to hop on when the group said they were done waiting, they had other horses to see and up and left.
Later they sent me an email saying that SH was "rude" to them (she wasn't, she might be brusque sometimes, but she was being nice to them) and that they couldn't spend that much time waiting. I resisted sending a snarky email back that it is considered courteous to let all parties involved know that you are on a tight schedule so they can make an effort to hurry things along, especially since they had wasted a lot of my time in coordinating this event and by taking time out of my day to be there for it. I was very annoyed by this.
But anyways, it was still a pretty good day. I got to watch Misty's lessor school her cross country. Misty's looking a lot more fit, though I didn't like how girthy she was acting while tacking up. She always holds her leg up since she knows she can't paw, but she never bites the air. They're using a nylon girth, which I think is the main problem, plus tightening it up too much, too quickly.
Misty was having a lot of refusals because her lessor didn't have her leg on. She's used to riding hotter horses that you have to hold back instead. She needs to put her leg on and kiss a couple strides away versus kicking right at the base of the jump - this will fix their crooked approach, refusals and bunny hops.
At least Misty is tolerant. She gamely cantered through the water and tried hard. She just needs a confident push over the jumps. They are showing at the Young Riders HT this weekend, which I'm excited for them about. Her lessor's goals: not get eliminated, not fall off and have a good dressage score. She's not used to having a horse that's good at dressage and I told her that we once scored a 28 so she better get in the mid-30's at least!
Im very excited to hear how she does, though I hope the refusals don't end up hurting them. I've done two shows with her and combined, we had one refusal on cross country, no time penalties, show jumping was double clear, and she placed high. So she better behave herself! I advised that she wear spurs and I am going to purchase some pro pictures possibly. I thought it was amusing though... They registered her with USEA as Unmistaken Diva. This poor horse is going to have more names an she can handle! Her USDF name is Mistaken and her registered APHA name is Henny Penny.
In the meantime, enjoy some tiny clips of schooling. I can't embed them on my iPad (or at least can't figure out how to).
