Flipping the Switch – Mellow momma to entertaining equine

January 30, 2025

Flipping the Switch – Mellow momma to entertaining equine

Angel is the queen of our herd. We got Angel late in 2014 after it became clear that Pistol was a long-term project. She was in foal, so there would be a short period of time where I would not be riding her, but at least I would have a horse to ride while I worked with Pistol. She was super mellow at first. The farther we have gotten from Highway being weaned, the more entertaining she has become. Don’t get me wrong, she is a great mare, a lovely horse to ride, and has really become my girl. However, occasionally, she acts more like a stereotypical thoroughbred than Lasie and Highway’s sire ever did, even though he is a full thoroughbred. She will rear, buck, kick, and play like a crazy youngster out in the pasture, even at the age of 23! She has her moments under saddle. Never anything scary or dangerous, just acting like a flakey, spooky youngster. She is definitely not a horse for a beginning rider.

Angel and I at the farm we boarded at in Wisconsin

My barn owner was trying to reduce the number of horses she owned and was getting out of breeding as well. Angel had been bred by my barn owner’s family, who had also bred the sire of Lasie and Highway. We decided to buy the foal she was carrying at the time, as we knew I was going to want it once born. And having the time until weaning to get attached, it was the more economical way to go! I rode Angel up until about a month before she was due to foal. I stopped then only because I didn’t have a long enough girth for her expanding body! It was nice to have a horse to ride, and she was quite mellow. At that point.

Angel and Highway when he was a couple weeks old

Highway (his barn name) was born in early April 2015, and I started riding Angel again when he was about a month and a half old. We went to a couple of dressage schooling shows for some exposure and ended up doing a couple of Intro classes with her, which showed me a few things I needed to work on. We went through some saddle fit changes and went to a couple of clinics, and I discovered from one of the clinicians that she has some real potential as a dressage horse. I don’t see us doing Grand Prix, but she can at least make it through some of the lower levels. I want to try and earn her Register of Merit with the AQHA and move her from the Appendix registry into the regular registry. That is my biggest goal with her. Whether that is dressage or Working Western Rail (I have returned to some of my Western riding roots now that I have discovered this style of riding), I am not sure yet.

Angel in her western tack

We had a rather lazy winter from 2015 into 2016. I don’t do well in cold weather, and my dad was in and out of the hospital, passing away at the end of March 2016. After I finally got my butt back in the saddle, I decided that I was going to take the year and focus on improving her and Pistol and my riding and skip showing. That turned out to be a good decision, as we had on-again-off-again issues with very mild lameness. It wasn’t until October that I finally got to the bottom of that issue. She has very mild arthritis in her right hock. Just enough that it makes her the slightest bit sore at times. She also has an old shoulder injury, but a half pad keeps that from being a problem. We still didn’t make it into the show ring in 2017, as she has moments where she will work beautifully and then flips a switch and starts being a turd, getting spooky and acting like a butt. We did our first canter work together in 2017, but a non-horse-related fall messed my back up a bit, and I had to scale back my riding quite a bit.

Angel and I in her pasture in Wisconsin

Angel has settled down under saddle more since we moved south at the end of 2018. We have done some hunter stuff since moving to Memphis and learning to jump. We competed at a few local hunter/jumper shows and picked up a few ribbons. She does well in outdoor arenas but tends to be a bit spooky at indoor arenas. Though she still turns on the sass at times, but that just makes her more fun to ride!