I Like Big Butts

Alright, it's time to bring out the big guns.

Horses.

I like big butts and I cannot lie... Big horse butts that is. Because of who I grew up with, the only natural looking horses to me are the big, muscular Quarter Horses and Paints.

With big butts!

What most of you don't know about me is that half of my life was spent on horseback. Dogs took over only after a riding accident that both shook me up and halted my equine 'career'. Who knows what the face of this blog would look like if that accident had never happened. I can almost guarentee you that I'd still only have Jake and rescue wouldn't even be in my vocabulary.

The barn I learned everything from is amazing. The crew, the trainer, they were like my second family.  I, like most young girls, was horse crazy.  But, unlike most young girls, I was given opportunities that most kids can only dream of.  I was surrounded by people who wanted me to succeed in the horse world as much as I did.

I haven't been on horseback in a number of years. Since my accident really.  I still love them tremendously, and the longer I go without them, the more I realize how engrained they are in my soul.  I have to have horses again, and luckily, Red understands this.  And luckily, I understand that i cant keep a horse in the backyard.  So I'll wait until we move somewhere where I can keep a horse in the yard.  (Like a farm, guys. C'mon)

I did a lot of showing. Western Pleasure, mostly.  I didn't love it like my friends did.  But I did it and I learned a ton.  I rode a horse who didnt much care of it either. Doc, the old cow horse. He hung in there with me through my show phases.  But now from an 'outsider's' perspective, I'm beginning to lose my understanding of just where 'western pleasure' comes from.

Here is a video I pulled randomly from Youtube. Watch.

Now tell me that that doesn't look torturous to that horse?  It's not torturous. Not really.  But who decided that it should be natural for a horse to have such an insanely collected trot and lope/canter that I could walk faster on my own two feet than that horse would go at either gate?

That's why Doc and I were never good at it.  We wanted to stretch our legs over open fields with nothing more than a halter and leadrope to guide us. And the more I see this, the more I'm happy that I dont do it anymore. I love going to the shows. I love helping to dress up the horses and I loved the training. I loved every single aspect of showing horses. Except for when it actually came time to walk into that ring. I hated it. Every minute of it. Maybe it's the lack of competitiveness in me. Maybe I just didn't want my horse to be as unhappy as I knew he would be for those 5 minutes in the ring.

I used to have this obsession with a horse called 'Kid Clu'.  He was the biggest, most powerful stallion I'd ever seen.  The buckskin above is his son. I like them BIG!