Breed of Horse: Paso Fino

I bought Little Man in February of 1992.  Then on March 17 I was in a car accident.  The accident left me unaable to ride for two years.  For those two years I was barely able to even brush Little Man.  I did manage to feed him almost every day and we developed a relationship that way.  He is not the most affectionate horse but certainly loves his treats which included a beer on Friday nights with my boyfriend.

When I got Little Man he had been a show horse.  He had bad habits like snaking his head at you when you would feed him.  My boyfriend was even afraid to feed him.  It took several months to settle him down.  I think then he realized that he was not going to wake up one mmorning and be put back into heavy traning and trailering to show every few weeks.

As he settled down he descided he did want to be a member of the family.  He would stick his head through the porch screening and grab a pool cue and take his turn at the game that usualy went on on Friday nights.  Trying to be one of the boys I guess.

He also had a few tricks up his sleeve and proved that he is intelligent.  One afternoon I was taking my nap when I heared loud noises on the tile outside my bedroom.  Thinking that it was a home invasion I grabbed the phone and lay real quite waiting to see what would happen scared out of my mind. In walk Little Man!  He figured out how to work the door nob and from that time on he was relegated to the pasture instead of being allowed to graze in the front yard.  I even had to put a different lock on the feed room since he would practice opening that door knob.

During the two years that I coulnd't ride I tried to have diffferent people ride him so that he wouldn't get barn sour.  I am afraid that was a mistake because I couldn't wathc what people where doing to him out on the trail.

When I finally got to ride his gait wasuneven and he would fall out of it if you didn't pay close attention.  He also took to trying to buck and when we where on the pavement he even fell down trying to misbehave. I was to weak to retrain him myself so I hired a trainer.

After three weeks they told me to sell him that he would never make a good safe trail horse.  He had even backed the trainer into a canal!.Well I wasn't quite ready to give up so I started riding him with friends.He was fine with the other horses except that he would play games withthem.  Making faces and grumbling at them.  If I didin't pay attention he would even try to pull their bridles off. We started riding  a couple of times a week and he settled down and was back to that wonderful gait that made me buy him.

Then I moved.  Where I moved to there was a Tenessee Walking Horse trainer on the same street.  We started riding together.  Every morning we would go out down a rode with big truck rumbling buy.  This horse that was never going to be safe didin't bat an eye.  He became so good that the trainer would ride his green horses with us because Little Man was good with them and would show them how to cross a canal and let them get close when they where afraid of the trucks.
 
Best of all he listened to my body.  He knows when I am not feeling that great or am having a weak day and will behave accordingly.  When I am strong he acts like a spririted Paso with arched neck and prancing feet.  When I am not feeling good he acts like an old school horse and neverputs a foot wrong. 

I don't know how or why he cares but I don't think I could ever ask for a better horse than Little Man 

Felice Young