Another positive (but crazy) story

It's nice to occasionally be able to tell you guys about times when Lucy is a good girl and uses her brain cells.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I always use my brain cells."

Yesterday it was really warm here, almost 50 degrees. Everything is thawing out and I decided to lunge her in the outdoor. The last time she was in the outdoor was the day we all tried to take the horses for a hand walk on the trails and Lucy ruined it for everyone by spending the entire time on her two hind legs and waving hello with her front legs. She was out of control.

So to be safe, I closed the special gate that my BO set up for us to make the outdoor, which doesn't have a fence around one half of it, as enclosed as possible. I put her on the barn's lunge line, which resides right next to the outdoor for easy access, and she was going beautifully. She had a gorgeous floaty trot, seemed happy, was stretching down through her back and neck, and I was like, wow what a fancy horse.

She had a little canter and was being polite, not pulling on me or being stupid, just going around normally. I had about the same amount of pressure on the line that you'd have if you were balancing your horse for a jump.

Well, the line suddenly snapped in half and without warning. I had a "loose" horse cantering around me with about 25' of lunge line whipping around behind her. It even smacked her in the butt. She looked very worried but did not have a tantrum, spook, or take off!

The last time this horse was loose in the outdoor, she ran herself up the road, slipped and fell, and for her efforts, won $4000 of vet bills and almost a year of rehab. Yesterday, that couldn't happen again because I had closed the gate (THANK GOD), but she didn't even flip out. She simply continued lunging herself in a perfect 20 metre circle as I stood in the middle holding the broken handle-end of the lunge line.

The aftermath.

I think she would have kept on cantering all day if I hadn't said, "Lucy, WOAH" and walked slightly toward her shoulder. She stopped and looked at me like "what the heck are you doing?"

I am not sure why the line broke like that, though I suspect since it sat outside and was subjected to the elements, the material had rotted just enough to cause a weak spot. There were several big knots in the line to make it easier to hold, and it didn't even break at one of those spots. Very strange! It was a Dover cotton line for anyone interested.

She got a lot of cookies after that :)