The Repurposed Horse

I have a conundrum. This graceful, attractive beast has -possibly- the WORST registered name to have ever been a name.  It's been mentioned before. Are you ready? Doctor Jim Bob Allegedly, the name of the vet in KC when he was born was Doctor Jim Bob.  So that's what his owners named him when he was registered.  In the sale videos that I have found of him on YouTube, he went by the barn name "Blaze."  For, I think, relatively obvious reasons. dat blaze. When I bought him, he was going by "Splash." I think we technically qualify as a pinto with dat chrome.  And then Leo was chosen by random selection/popular opinion/I liked it the best/it suits him.  Barn name settled. BUT WHAT SHOULD HIS SHOW NAME BE???? Popular opinion at the barn is to keep "Doctor Jim Bob" as it is, and I do think that engraving it in fancy-ass script on things like a show halter would be hilarious.  But do I really want to show "Doct...

As I mentioned yesterday, today was the day that Trainer K was scheduled to ride Leo for the first time.  We were then supposed to have a private lesson.  One of those things happened. Once she started working with Leo, she didn't stop until the full hour was up.  They did walking and trotting, working on adding leg and counterbending and circling.  She explained every single aid in detail, and the logic behind why she was doing what she was doing.  Unfortunately, my phone was in the car charging, or there would be pictures and possibly video.  They did not jump.  They did not canter.  They worked on the basics, and eventually he 'got' just about everything she was asking him to do.  There was a moment of terror when a giant scary truck dropped off some round bales, and he became a spook-monster (unusual for him these days, but as she pointed out she was a new rider and he probably didn't have a whole lot of trust in her hay-bale-slaying ab...

We worked on our glamour skills today. After last week's success with Leo, my plan was to ride every day this week.  I was really excited to find out if my last ride was just really good luck or an actual breakthrough.  Unfortunately, Gigi the saddlebred had other plans for me.  I was moving her so that I could clean her stall (I clean stalls 3x a week at my barn), and she ever-so-politely decided to step on my foot with her stupid giant weighted saddlebred shoes (Gigi is the only saddlebred at the barn that actually does saddleseat).  I've been stepped on about a million times, and it hurts for like 5 minutes, tops, and then goes away.  Unfortunately, this time it didn't - it actually got worse, and now my poor pinky toe is swollen and discolored and significantly more painful than expected to walk on.  I'm pretty sure it's broken, but having had broken toes in the past I'm saving myself a medical bill by buddy taping (okay, buddy vet wrapping), icing...