Selling Spencer

You did indeed read that correctly.

I've spent the last few days trying to think of how to polity write this, and have come to the conclusion there is one. (That's the heads up there will probably be a plethora of swearing)

The good stuff first I suppose:
Spencer has been pretty well behaved these past few days! He had an amazing triple combination on Thursday! Which really was the best part of the course but he didn't spook at the boxes, the blue pole (he doesn't like blue) or the tree jump!
Today we didn't have anything that felt as good as the triple combination, but he still did great considering how hot it is and how hard he was working. The course was slightly longer and higher but no rails down, no refusals! He's cantering is meh. He still doesn't want to pick it up when you first ask from the trot, but once he gets going he's fine and generally picks it up the first time you ask. We've been working on getting a bigger, smoother canter, which has helped his jumping loads (he's kind of like Pony that way).

The bad stuff is that he doesn't behave for his owner the way he does for me. This is entirely her fault. He doesn't pick up the canter very well for her and when he does "he goes so fast its like he's in the Kentucky derby". That is a legit quote and are you fucking kidding me?! He's a cob! He's not capable of going that fast!!!!!!! She thinks he's going too fast so she gets nervous and yanks her hands up towards her chest and rips on his mouth so of course he fucking stops! But then she gets all pissed, I mean come on, what the hell else is going to do?! She doesn't get yelled at like any of us would because she's already nervous and she's about 50. (That's probably another reason that he doesn't want to start cantering with either of us but once he figures out I'm not her, he's like oh, okay, you aren't going to rip my face off for doing what you ask). She also rides very stiffly because she's nervous, he hates to be ridden like that. My understanding is she hasn't jumped since the first time when she was super stiff and wouldn't give a release. She doesn't trust him, which is stupid because he's mostly very well behaved. She got bucked off once and now they (her and K) think that everything she does wrong stems from that, but GET OVER IT!!!! If you can't handle that, you don't belong in this sport and need to gtfo right now. Everyone falls off, you have to get back on and get over it. There's no point thinking about it and worrying about it, it doesn't help. So K thinks they are both frustrated with each other, probably, but I'm on his side. The only reason any of this is happening is she can't relax, just pop a vallium and get on with it. Or better yet, trust him and get on with it. I have no patients for this kind of thing, it drives me nuts. We couldn't even tell her about when I fell off and got that huge bruise b/c she would probably stop riding or something. K wants to video me and Spencer to show her what he can do and that he would be like that for her if she just relaxed. L is the only one who seems to share my view. Everyone else is like "oh she's just nervous and scared, it's probably good to get a different horse". She shouldn't have bought him at all, she had only been riding for a year and he's to advanced for her. She hasn't said anything to me about selling him, just to K, how apparently has a horse for her to look at. Great, now I'll be forced back to Kokanee. Lucky me.
Ugh, I'm so pissed about this. It's all her fault and if she quit being such a baby, none of this would be happening, but as it is, she's wrecking her own horse.
So I guess we have to wait and see.
I wonder if she feels bad when she gets update texts from me saying how great he was, when she has (causes) all these problems with him.
I feel kind of bad being so nasty, but at the same time it's all true at the same time....

It gets really, really frustrating having horse after horse sold out from under you. Rocket and Tango were my choice because I wanted to ride someone else. Diesel had such a long back that he started to get sour in the end, so he got retired and sold to do light trail (which he loves apparently), Tommy had slightly clubbed front hooves so he was sold to a dressage home so he could have a longer career, so even though he was sold out from under me it wasn't so terrible because then I got Pony and it was best for him to go somewhere else. Pony was incredibly frustrating because she was and is my all time favorite but her owner thought it would be cheaper to send her to Calgary (and now Manitoba apparently, yeah that sounds cheap...) and now Spencer. He's probably the most frustrating because there's no reason for this to happen if his owner would fucking relax.