My new BFF has 4 legs

So I stole a horse, sort of. More like he chose me to steal him... My partner doesn't really know yet that I've stolen him but I named him therefore he is mine! His name is Asher, and he's beautiful, and he's mine!

My knowledge of horses, I've come to realize, is slim to none. I used to work at the barn at a kids camp during my teenage years in which I was around them all day. But whereas those horses were very old, very sad, very tired, and very safe for a group of 30 screaming children, the horses we have on this ranch are work horses. They need to be aggressive, they need to be high energy. He is 1 of about 30 horses we have here who, for the most part, are totally green and unbroke. Like cow dogs, cow horses s-u-c-k (with the exception of Asher, of course). In the words of my always cryptic partner "Most of them don't have names, and those who do, it's not for good reasons....". So like an intelligent, optimistic newbie, I've decided that I'm going to start this horse, Asher and magically make him ride-able in the distant future with a little TLC and trust exercises. Right? That's how you do it?

My partner seems to find this infinitely amusing. Which makes me want to kick him in the shins. But I have been persisting and have seemed to be making progress! Before, I couldn't even get near him and now he will let me pet him within reason, and walk around him. I've gotten him to eat out of my hand, now. Early this spring I tried to give him a carrot and he wouldn't even eat it after I threw it at him.... He's a highly suspicious individual, my new bestie. Occasionally he likes to lift his head up and show his teeth and do this weird wheezy thing... I don't think he's threatening me... I like to think he's smiling, really, really big. I think if he were trying to scare me with his giant chompers, he would have chomped me by now. I hope.

So, I'm making progress and my partner can go suck a lemon! Next I'm going to try taking a lead rope out with me and just, I don't know, introducing it to him. Show him it's not going to kill him if I wrap it around his neck. I shared this plan with partner and (after laughing) he said he'd help me go retrieve my rope afterwards. Oh ye of little faith.

 

There's that handsome devil

More things I've learned since moving to the ranch:
8) If women realized the kind of sh** (literally) that REAL cowboys get into, they wouldn't find them nearly as attractive...