The crazy things people do......

Trooper has a new human. The girl that he tried out really suited him so now she belongs to him.
She is cute, as humans go, and very polite and respectful of the rest of us. She had originally trained at another barn, but she moved over to this one after she realized Trooper would be happier around his old friends.

She came out to the barn the other day and brought another human female with her. This female was not a horse person, we could all tell in an instant, but she was professing love for us and wanted to meet her friend's new horse.

I try not to be a judgemental horse, but some of the things humans do to themselves are absolutely scary. This girl had at least three different colors in her hair and resembled a rainbow porcupine more than anything. That wasn't the worst of it. Her ears were layered with those metal dangly things that most human females wear, but they were bigger and more dangly. I can't imagine any self respecting horse poking holes in himself just for appearances.

The ear things were not the worst of it. Trooper and I were cross tied out in the aisle, facing each other, so I could see this human very clearly. She had a huge ring of metal through her lower lip and it sticking out quite far. It was big enough to clip a lead rope to, and indeed I wondered if that was the purpose. However, I have never seen a human led with a rope, so I suppose not.
Trooper and I were both trying to not stare. Shorty and Lucky had no such reservations. They were pressed up against the barns and whickering comments that had me hard put not to whinny with laughter. They are incorrigible!

Trooper's human seemed unaware of the potential danger that these metal dangly things could cause, but we horses knew that they were nothing but trouble.

We ended up in the lower round ring. My human was just giving me a light ride, and Trooper's human was merely stretching his legs, and showing him off for her friend. The moment all of us horses dreaded arrived and sure enough the friend wanted to sit on Trooper's back. She was wearing those open foot things and very short leg covers. It was not appropriate and I could see Trooper gritting his teeth. He'd been through this before.

Thankfully his human had the sense to lend her helmet to her friend. My human and I had halted so she could tighten the girth and we saw what happened quite clearly.

Trooper's human was giving her friend a leg up and typical of most beginners the friend leaned too far forward and dragged her front over the neck of the horse. Sadly for her Trooper has a very thick mane and her lip ring hung in it. Her weight was pushing her over and the ring was firmly caught. It made a nasty rip, although it did not pull all the way through. Trooper was stalwart and never moved, even with she was struggling to free herself. My human leaped off of my back and ran over to help. It took both her and Trooper's human to free the friend. Trooper had blood all down his neck and shoulders. Thankfully Lucky's owner drove up and offered to take Trooper's human and her friend to the human veterinarian. My human led us both back to the barn and untacked us, muttering all the while about the strange things humans do to themselves.
I couldn't agree more. I can only hope that the style doesn't catch on and us horses find ourselves adorned with bright studs and metal dangly things. More later.