Milton is not Rodney. I forget this.
When I’m grooming Milton, I will slooowly reach toward his head with a brush. He stands there. Then I remember Milton is not head-shy; I can brush his head like any other part of his body.
I take Milton for a walk. He utterly fails to get uptight. (Unless, of course, we encounter a flock of turkeys, or a storm blows in, or other horse-alert events.) The response to the average walk varies between, ‘Meh.’ and ‘Why are we doing this?’ Milton has his moments (see above). Trudging around the perimeter of his own field is not one of them.
This is all on the ground. If-and-when I ever ride them (HA!), it will be interesting to see how the two horses compare & contrast.
If you ride more than one horse regularly, do you tend to a type? Or do you enjoy variety?
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
I Like variety. It keeps me on my toes, keeps me thinking and learning.
I though of you when I wrote this. I seem to recall that your horses had very different attitudes?
me? Princess and Chief could not be more different if they tried. Of course, Chief thought I was the lead mare in his herd, which could have something to do with it…And Priney had been overworked by a former owner chasing points, and not getting a lot of love. And judging from her behavior, especially when I first got her and then toward the end of her life, at some point she had been physically abused. But she calmed down fairly quickly after i got her; she was always good in the ring, perfect pony hunter, but it took longer to get her comfortable outside. Where as Chief was always playful, liked to rub up against people for scritches, and was a stallion till he was 14 which probably had a lot to do with things, even tho he lived till a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday. Chief had been used as a field hunter, even tho he wasn’t crazy about jumping. I loved and miss them both.
❤
It’s been a while, almost two years (frown) since I had a horse to work with regularly. My guy is being watched by a friend while we are overseas. It’s been even longer still since I had multiple horses. However, for a while there I had two – my guy, a Paint stallion, and my other was an Arabian mare. I used to compare them as this: she was a Ferrari, he was a Cadillac. Every move she made was done as if it needed to happen last week… while he’d get around to it. She was bothered by everything, he’s bothered by nothing. If I got frustrated by his lazy ways (I had another trainer correct me once, she described him as: “dull”, not lazy), I’d fire up the sports car. If she rattled me with her zoom-y, spooky, flighty-ness, I’d hop back on the slow, smooth ride. It was certainly an interesting contrast to have. I kind of miss it, but then once he was my only horse, it forced me to work on “his issues” (my issues? our issues?) and as a result, he wasn’t so “dull” anymore. I think over the years I’ve always used him as a confidence builder, or re-builder, when I got rattled by issues with other horses. So I was okay with him being lazy/dull and he never really had to work hard = win/win. But once all of the project horses were gone and it was just the two of us, he had to step it up. I was happy, not sure how he felt about it. 😉 My friend who is watching him says she thinks he misses being an only horse. He was spoiled that way with me during our last while together. He got all of the attention, not just work, but grooming, special treats and so on. After all that rambling, I’d say that I enjoy variety. It certainly makes a person a better rider, but I think I enjoy his type the most: laid back, not bothered by much, but as it turns out: quite capable of get up and go! I enjoy some spunk and spirit – he does have that! – but not too much. If that makes any sense.