Hope y’all got your fill of Henny the XC Horse yesterday, because today we’re doing a total 180!

As you heard in the show recap posts, my long time friend and new blogger Michele was in town for a few days. This meant, of course, that I simply had to talk her into taking Henry for a spin, because I love sharing him with my friends. What’s not to love? And honestly it didn’t take that much arm twisting to get Michele to agree.

I will say, Michele doesn’t give herself nearly enough credit as a rider. She always talks on her blog about how she’s timid, doesn’t like a big or fast horse, etc. But what she’s not saying is that she has an excellent seat, solid leg, and great hands. Henry went super for her and seemed to like her a lot (or as much as he can like anything that isn’t XC, anyway). You would never know that she’s used to riding a much different type of horse.

She kept telling me she was worried about ruining him but I kept reminding her that if I hadn’t ruined him in 3.5 years, I was pretty sure she couldn’t do it in 20 minutes. Plus I kinda feel like if I’ve done my job right, he should be pretty rideable for most people. He really is a pretty quiet, simple horse if he’s just doing basic stuff… he can plod right around like a lesson horse if you want him to. After a few minutes of getting acclimated to him (and a bit of peer pressure) she cantered him a bit and even hopped him over a crossrail. It was so cute I almost couldn’t handle it.

Michele even said that when she came back (ha, she’s a glutton for punishment, coming back to visit me again) she’d jump him more and maybe even jump my little coop out in the conditioning field. I think Henny gained a new fan!

Of course, what’s not to like about a horse that can zoom around a Training XC on Sunday like a beast and then plod politely over a crossrail on Tuesday? Henny, you da best, even if you do have the most remarkable resting mare face.