The Real Deal

I'm damn proud of Maverick. He's more than a sorrel diamond in the rough. He's the real deal. He may not be much to look at, nothing flashy, no high step, but he's a damn good horse.


I got on him yesterday for the first time in one and a half years with no issues. Most trainers would shake their heads in dismay and say I'm doing it wrong. In fact, I HAVE had a trainer show his dismay for my lack of ground work with a horse before stepping into the saddle.


But to those trainers, you don't know what I have. Your horses take years and years to get where I am without even trying. If I could ride more than once in a great moon, I'd have a horse that would win ribbons, buckles, trophies. Why, because he's that damn good.


I was mulling it over. I haven't ridden Maverick since October 2014. I got pregnant in 2015 and didn't ride (because I didn't want to risk hurting the baby...had a wakeup call when I fell off Zeke...hard). I did hop on Maverick in October 2015 but that was for about 5 minutes and only to prove to myself that I could ride him. I still get a scare from thinking I can ride him (he's a perfect gent so it's all in my head).


So, go pull a horse out of YOUR pasture that's been sitting for a year and a half and climb on without any ground work. Oh sure, I threw the saddle on and did about 2 minutes of lunging but that's it. I walked him around the arena and then hopped on. Yes, he's that damn good. Not many people can do that with their horses unless they are old ranch horses who have miles and miles and hours and hours of time on them. Maverick. does. not.


I can pretty much hop on any of the herd that's broke to ride and ride out with no problems. Because my herd is that good. Because we have a trust. And I'm just that lucky.


I was asking Maverick to do stuff that was trained out of him. It irked me that people were telling me I needed to work with him, that he's just being lazy. There's no flaw with Maverick. What he does, is all stuff that he was trained to do (or not do in this case). If he were a person, he'd be close to a damn genius.


Maverick is smart and gets bored easily. But he's smart and has a good work ethic (if/when I ever do ride him).


I guess I just wanted to toot Maverick's horn. He hasn't been off the place in 1.5 years, hasn't been saddled in 6 months (and a year before that), hasn't been around anyone else but his normal herd in 1.5 years, hasn't been hauled in that same amount of time and he did awesome. Of course, he bulked a little going in and out of the trailer but I sort of know the issue there.


Maverick is no push button horse. But that's because I'm used to riding Zeke. He's an old pro. But at 24 years old and having been trained and done almost everything in the books, he knows what he's doing. Maverick hasn't been exposed to nearly as much. I know his history and in fact, he hasnt' been exposed to nearly as much stuff as the rest of the herd and he did awesome for what he knows.


So, I used to call Maverick a diamond in the rough. Naw, he's the real deal. If he would have fallen into a home that showed, or a home that rodeo'd, he'd be winning ribbons and buckles. Because Maverick is the real deal.