Rosso and the Pony

I'm chatty today.

Did I ever tell you how we came to have Rosso the big red chicken? He's the horse in the picture to the left. That was him learning how to longe when I first brought him home. Furry Husband was out taking pictures and we thought that one was cool.

Rosso would just FREAK OUT if I put the longe line on him, and it was pretty much his reaction for anything he didn't understand. He is much better now - he longes quite well - and I longe him before I get on him to see if he's in one of his FREAK OUT moods or if he is feeling obedient. He is more and more in the obedient frame of mind these days. But I am ever watchful for a FREAK OUT.

Anyway - the person I bought my nice, Thoroughbred mare, Sera from had Sera's 1/2 brother for sale. $700. He ran 8 races and won $500 which is why he was home and for sale. He'd had surgery on one knee to remove a bone chip but had recovered and raced after the surgery - he wasn't broken down from the track.

We did NOT need another horse but Furry Husband and I like to do stuff that isn't exactly logical or sane. We went and looked at this $700 Thoroughbred gelding from the race track.

He was in a smallish pen, it was muddy out and the horse was just up, up, up - he was galloping around in this little pen and snorting and carrying on like a wild jungle animal. I liked the look of him tho'. I'm not an expert at conformation in horses but I think I can look at the overall picture and know if it is a pleasant picture or if something is wrong.

I used to test my "eye" for conformation when I'd watch dairy goat or dog shows ... I'd watch the class and I'd place the does or dogs I liked.... I wasn't 100% accurate and it's not like I picked the winning animal all the time, but my picks were always in the front half of the results. I don't think I ever picked a last place animal. So not exactly like I KNOW what I'm doing but I can tell when everything fits together nicely if that makes sense?

Anyway - I thought Rosso looked nice and moved well. BUT we really didn't need another horse so we decided to let him go. I took pictures of him and showed my trainer - she thought he looked good too. He is a bit over at the knee in front but it's not bad and in Dressage it's all about teaching the horse to carry their wieght on the hind end anyway.

The end of the summer rolled around and still no one wanted him. The owner was now giving him away for free. Furry Husband and I talked. We had 2 aged horses pushing 30, they weren't going to live forever, and it'd be nice to have a buddy for Sera.... and a back up plan for me to ride if anything ever happened to her.

Well, lets just say you can pretty much talk yourself into or justify anything.

I called the owner and asked if she had a place to winter him because we didn't have have a shelter built for another horse. No - she did not. I told her I'd take him, but could she hold onto him for a month? We'd pay his feed bill and we'd construct something to shelter him at home... it was agreed.

We went to get him just before Thanksgiving. He looks a lot like Sera. He has one white sock on one front leg and Sera has one white sock on one back leg. They both have a blaze - tho' Rosso's is more of a strip. I can tell by looking at them which is which but most everyone gets them mixed up.

We named him Rosso which is "red" in Italian. Pretty original huh? Furry Husband sells wine and he often sells red Italian table wine called rosso. That year he won a trip to Italy so to us it makes sense.

A lot of people don't get Rosso's name. We pronounce it 'row (as in row, row, row your boat) -sew (as in a needle pulling thread) '

We get:

Russo (like the actress Renee Russo)

Rojo (the Spanish version of red)

Row-scoe ( dunno what that is? )

Rosco (as in Roscoe P. Coltrain from the 1970s Dukes of Hazzard t.v. show)

Rose-co (?? Not sure what this one is either ... Rose Co.??)

Anyway, Rosso is a huge chicken.

This past weekend I took him to Rex's. (he is getting in the trailer oh so much faster now - like a normal horse! Yay for me!) Once our ride was over and he was cooled out, I got off of him. I stood around talking to Elizabeth and Rex while Elizabeth's daughter walked her pony into the indoor arena and began walking it around to warm the pony's stiff legs up...

You could see a tiny, shaggy, white horse escaped all confines of Rosso's mind. He is such a "fragile flower".

His eyes were BUGGING out of his head. He snorted and wanted to run away. I held onto him and ignored him. We were all laughing at the expression on his face actually - watching him keep an eye on the very scary pony.

When Elizabeth's daughter actually crawled up on the pony to ride it.... hoo boy. Rosso just could not figure it out, had never seen such a thing and was all googly eyed. I kept him in the arena and the pony came pretty close to him. I really wanted to take him over to sniff the pony... but with a child on the pony... not such a good idea. What if Rosso struck out with a front leg or tried to taste the pony?

Anyway - he stayed until the pony was not such a big deal. It's good for him. Yeah - going to his first horse show aughta be all sorts of fun... snort. NOT.