Jojo, you're not cute anymore.

Occasionally, I do stupid things. Today is one of those days. First, my confidence in my riding is at all time low lately and I really do not know what I was thinking at the time.

Story time!

I exercise ride for the polo club and the owners of the horses that I ride were going to be out of town today. They told me to be at their house at 4:00 if some other people were going to ride so I can help tack up and stuff. Silly me, I assumed that one of the responses of who was going to be there was from people that needed help. It turned out to be the mother of someone that did not need help-- and so I went out there for nothing. So I decided, "Okay... I brought my helmet and I'm wearing my boots... I'll ride- even though the horse I really like to ride is not here anymore. I'll just try to find myself a new favorite."

So I went out to the paddock with the other girl to pick a horse. My first choice was so covered in dirt that I did not feel like spending 45 minutes brushing her, so I went with the stupid choice.

Now, I've ridden Jojo before- NO PROBLEMS. He's known to be kind of crazy during polo matches, but I thought, "Hey- no one is actually playing polo today, he'll be fine." He likes to rear up and spin around.

I started walking him around the field and just telling him how cute he is with his winter coat growing in.

Then the other girl picked up her mallet and started hitting the ball. As soon as Jojo heard the mallet make contact with the ball, he perked up, got antsy and was suddenly completely uncontrollable for me. So I decided to get down (I didn't want to have a stupid accident and break a bone when 1. I don't have health insurance right now and 2. the owners weren't around)-- except he wouldn't stop. He just kept walking and throwing his head. He wanted to go, go, go and I kept saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

So I ended up emergency dismounting and walking him back to the barn (of course, he stopped as soon as I jumped off). I untacked him and set him free. He said, "Screw you!" and galloped off to be with the other horses.

So I was stupid for picking the horse that I knew I couldn't handle. I don't know why I thought I could even when I know I'm back to being a beginner rider again. Though, I don't know why he was completely awesome for me once or twice and now he's scary.

Lesson learned.