Cob Jockey

Last night I was having a great Dressage ride when I was rudely interrupted by one of the barn's resident raccoons trying to climb down the arena wall.

Since the rest of these GIFs will be ridiculous, proof that we actually did get some legitimate work done before this happened

Connor is the biggest chicken in the world, and with little success I've tried to embolden him by asking him to chase wildlife that scared him in the past - hawks, foxes, cats (but uh, obviously not the skunks. Live and let live.) So I cantered him straight at the thing hoping that would intimidate it, buuuuuut Connor wasn't really interested in that, haha.

In case you missed it in the GIF

So I got off and threw my whip at it.

Poor, long-suffering sidekick

And continued to throw my whip at it the whole way across the arena, hissing and yelling the entire time.

As always, Connor was skeptical but trusted me. Just look at that face.

"Well okay I guess, if you say so"

I got back on to cool him out, but there was no recovering from that level of excitement, which thankfully happened about 30 minutes into my ride so it didn't matter too much. So I untacked Connor, and while I did, Meatloaf treed the raccoon in the corner the entire time.

Good dog. Never moved a muscle for 15 whole minutes.

The BOs have a trapper coming today, so hopefully we can continue our Dressage schools uninterrupted. Although if I'm being honest, I don't mind the diversion. The more weird shit I do with my horse, the better citizen he becomes - or at least that's what I tell myself.