My First Real Horse

This is Dakota, that's his barn name. His registered name is Dusk Te Troubles. He is a quarter horse. I owned him for 6 years and sold him last spring. My farrier described Dakota as the class clown. Dakota had my number and became very spoiled. I did learn alot from him, like every time a horse lays down, it does not necessarily mean he's collicking. Sometimes it means they're just sleeping or sunning themselves. Also, no matter how naughty he was, never punch your horse, they sometimes punch back, my hand and arm was casted for 12 weeks. And always teach your horse respect because they are large animals, which is why I had such difficulty at times with him, but he wasn't a bad horse. He was fun at times. He loves a bath. He would dance in the water and when the bath was done, he would promptly go roll in the dustiest place he could find as you can see from the picture. Loading was always unpredictable, sometimes he would and other times it was a fight. Whenever I took him out on the trail, he really didn't fail me, but always about halfway through the ride, he would get a hare up his bottom and give a little buck and start running. He was always easy to stop however. I spent hundreds of dollars on training and I won't state my opinion on that but that too is a learning experience. The first trainer I sent him to was great. In my opinion, he was a real horseman. Dennis has since passed away. Dakota was my baby for so long, but because I allowed it, it made much work for myself and probably unfairly confused him. He is a character, though. He would always steal my hair clips off my head whenever I was bent over fixing a fence or clearing a pasture. If I wasn't paying attention to him, he would poke at me with his nose. I miss him and I don't. I hope that he has a healthier relationship with his new owners. It's only fair.