A Day in the Life of Bowdie Bow Bar

You have probably heard a lot about me from Emily. Well, not everything she says is true about me. I am actually very smart and quite handsome. Did I mention drop-dead good lookin'? Yeah, that's me. And everyone loves me. Believe me, I know. Even when the mares kick and bite me I know that actually means they're fighting over who gets to be with me. I'm just that cool.

The name's Bodie. Bowdie Bow Bar is my full name but you can call me Bodie. And today I'm going to tell you the real story of what my pet, Emily, and I do. Yeah you got that right- Emily is not my owner. We're partners, but the truth is she's my pet and I've trained her to do all kinds of cool things. She comes when I don't come to her, she scratches my tummy in the places I can't reach whenever I show her how to do a trick, she brings me cookies whenever I tell her to, and I even showed her how to clean my stall for me by throwing all my food out. Eventually she gets driven crazy by how dirty it is and cleans it all out, and then gives me new food. Score! You see, training is all about using situations to teach your pet what to do.

So let me explain some things that you might not know about what horsemanship, horseback riding and horse care is really about.

 Okay, the whole sword thing she thinks is so cute? In reality I stole the sword from her and she started to snap pictures, laughing. She was trying to take pictures of herself in her whatever Russian outfit that has something to do with history or what not. But I stole the sword and she had to take a picture.

 Also, through this whole "I'm so awesome look at my hat", I'm actually chewing on the sword in this picture, and she's trying to jerk it out of my mouth.

 Chewing on the sword again... she never even noticed.

 Then she wanted to sword fight me, but I was done with this. "No," I told her, trying to take the sword from her. "You need to be done with this before you hurt yourself."

 But no, she wouldn't give it up. I had to grab it from her hand and take it from her, then she tried to jerk it away from me. She can be very disobedient sometimes.

 Oh and ignore this picture. I was... play acting for her to make her feel like she was threatening me.

 Okay, now we get to the hooded master thing she thinks is helpful to me or whatnot. Honestly I appreciate she cares so much about me, but this stuff gets annoying. I put up with it, though, because then I get to chew on her coat. She does this because she thinks I need to work on trusting her when my face is covered. In reality I'm just humoring her because she likes to play dress up.

 I trampled the coat after this picture. We haven't done it since. >B-)

 And here we come to the epic trail ride pictures. Ha! Let me tell you something about these pictures- most of the time I've just finished playing "let's see how long you can stay on" and she slaps me with the magic red stick of obedience because she's scared. Then I get to stop, which is what I wanted anyways. She is convinced that I need to leave my pasture mate, Mia, alone so I can be independent. She obviously doesn't know what she's talking about, because I have to take care of Mia or she'll kill herself. Believe me, that mare likes to chase elk, which is dumb because elk are so much more fun to hang out and play with. And don't get me started on her bareback and bridleless rides with her owner, Amy. (Yes, Mia has an owner. She worships the ground Amy walks on. I'm terrified of Amy, she is to be respected. She is the Horse Master, she KNOWS how to make me obey.) Someone has to keep that young mare from killing herself or obeying too much.

 Oh, and here we are in the field taking pictures of how Emily finally got the courage up for me to take her out there and show her that she is a good enough rider she can ride me bareback at a canter, and even when I crowhop she can stay on. So she wanted to take pictures to remember how she was a good girl. I was ignoring the camera and trying to act cool so she'd stop being so excited.

 Then she begged me to look at the camera so she could get an epic shot of me and the mountain.

 I encouraged her to take a selfie, which she did, then I tried to eat the camera because honestly that's all those things are good for anyways.

 And this picture gives you a good idea how small my pet is. She's considered "tall" for a girl, but next to me... not so much.

 I'm seriously considering hiding the camera from her now. We take pictures of everything.

 Tell me to my face I'm not patient. Look at me! She puts sticks on my head to make it look like an arrow is going through my ears! I sighed impatiently and waited until she stopped laughing before I took it and bit it.

 Which of course she tried to take it back out of my mouth. I've had to explain to her time and time again that I can chew on whatever I want. I'm invincible.

 Also, we're working on the "stay out of my way when I yawn or I might accidentally look like I'm going to eat you", which hasn't gone too well with her training but whatever. She thinks it's hilarious and takes tons of pictures. This girl doesn't take anything seriously.

 .......... ignore this photo as well, I didn't know she took this one....... I look like a dinosaur.

 Here I demonstrate to Emily the "how to look scary when yawning", which she has not mastered yet. We're working on that one, though.


So there you have it. The TRUE stories of what is going on in all those photos of me. Now you understand what I put up with. Emily is a somewhat hard pet to manage but we're getting there. After two years of training I think she's come a long way. She no longer boasts about her amazing horsemanship because I taught her to be humble or I'll buck her off. She's learned to ride on a loose rein or I'll chomp the bit in half, I've taught her to ride no matter how nervous I make her feel, and I even taught her how to stay on when I play "let's jump in the pond- oh looks it's frozen and we're skidding everywhere".

Emily has come a long way. Yes, she still drives me crazy, and yes, I still have a ways to go before she's perfect, but for a girl pet she's okay.

Don't ever think what you see in a picture is actually what's going on. Looks are deceiving. There's always two sides to every picture.

Oh, and next time one of you comes to visit her and she offers to let you ride me? Just know that I don't put up with any shenanigans. You will be taught to ride if you get on me. So come on over and I'll teach you something about horsemanship, okay? >:-) We'll begin with "stay on while I run to the tire and jump on it."

Oh, that one never gets old...