Midnight

When many of you first look at the title to this blog post you may be thinking that I am talking about the middle of the night, but I really am not! I am talking about Diamonds Midnight Star, for short called Midnight. Midnight is my horse. He is a registered black and white pinto, he is registered through the American Pinto Association. I have had Midnight since he was three and green broke. Many of you may wonder what does green broke mean? Well green broke basically means knowing the basics. When I got Midnight he really did know only the basics. He knew how to walk, trot, lope, steer left and right, and stop and that was about it! Midnight is now 13 years old and knows a lot more than just the basics. Actually another way to actually demonstrate how much he really knows and how much he is really worth: when I first bought Midnight I paid 1800 dollars for him, now if I was to sell Midnight I could easily ask at least 8000 dollars for him now. In this blog I will let you in on our amazing journey, as him and I grew together and learned together.

I am a pretty big Western/English pleasure fan. So as soon as I got Midnight home we started training him (my mom and I). Everything that Midnight knows I taught him, which I take great pride in that because Midnight and I are an awesome team, and he has turned into a pretty amazing horse! Let me tell you though this did not come easy. It was a lot of hard work and many many hours a day spent riding him. I sometimes even rode him twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. We worked on the many different gates and there speeds, we worked on pivots and side passes, we worked on using his butt to stop, and we also worked on showmanship too! You may be thinking my goodness what he she talking about with side passing and using the butt to stop, don't worry I will explain! Using the butt to stop means when I ask him to stop he should basically lock his hind legs and slide on his hind legs, now mind you Midnight is not very good at this, but he does try his hardest. If horses do not use their hind ends to stop they end up stopping on the forearm, which is their front end. When a stops on its front end it is very choppy and bouncy, because they are basically locking their front end up to stop....it also can be slightly harmful if they stop to hard on their front end.

Midnight has been my best friend for over 10 years and we have been through a lot! I am actually the only person he will be good for, when other people try to ride him he doesn't do so well. He is actually a very lazy horse and if you don't properly ask him to do something he wont do it! Its actually very funny how stubborn he can be! He even knows the person that makes him work hard! He roles his eyes every time he sees her it is actually very funny! I have never seen a horse with soo much personality!