HORSES

I have been watching the NFR rodeo finals which stretch out over an impossibly long week. I don't usually watch NFR but I do watch the PBR bull riders. However the PBR doesn't really do much horsie stuff and the NFR is all about the way man and horse interact to do a third thing: mostly roping calves. (And no, sorry, I don't worry about the calves.)

So I have, after nearly a week of kind of on-again, off-again watching, begun to note serious differences in the horses even though I would guess that 99% are Quarter Horses.

              Stolen from Google

This is a Quarter Horse so named because no horse is faster over a quarter of a mile than one of these.  What you see is those huge hips and shoulders. This is a working horse. He is also the Labrador Retriever/Golden retriever of the horse world.

He is friendly. (Understand, this is a general statement and not true of every single living Quarter horse.) He is easy. His gaits are nice and he can be trained to do just about anything you want him to do.
He can herd cattle or carry three little kids bareback around a pasture without spooking. He can shoot out of a little box and when his cowboy ropes a calf he can stop on a dime and keep the rope taut by backing up. He can carry a flag in a parade with drums and music and people yelling.

He can carry a kid who does crazy things without shying or bucking.
On the other hand, when asked to do cow things by a rider who knows what he is doing, the Quarter Horse is amazing.

He herds cattle. He ambles along quietly with a dog at his heels watching the cattle.

 

And when asked, he moves.

And he can REALLY move. And he can stop so fast that he can flip a calf at the end of a rope.

But mostly, he is just an amazingly versatile, comfortable horse. Love him and cherish him and you will receive loyalty and affection in return. The American Quarter Horse. What a guy.