Other than her penchant for wounding herself...

Journey is such an uncomplicated horse.  I noted a downed tree coming up on our last ride.  Thought to myself that this will cause her a big spook.  Yes it did.  Journey is predictable that way.  She also gets over these little emotional traumas very quickly.  Once she is "shown" that a stick, or a rock, or a tree are okay, she translates that information further on down the trail.

In my previous horse life it would have went like this:

I'm riding along on Phebes and the wind the night before blew a tree limb smaller than my arm down on the trail we have ridden 156 times before.  Phebes and I spot the stick.  Before I can draw breath I am on the ground and if I'm lucky, pick myself up in time to see which direction she has run off and left me.

In my current horse life this scenerio would go kind of like this:

I'm riding along on Journey and the wind the night before blew a tree limb smaller than my arm down on the trail we have ridden 3 times before.  Journey and I see the stick.  Journey pauses, and processes, and we move on down the trail TOGETHER.

Next day I'm riding Phebes on the same trail, same stick, I have to dismount and desensitize to the stick, only to travel of forty more feet to a new stick, and get a new explosion.

Next day riding Journey on the same trail, same stick, she walks on by it, and further down the trail she sees the next stick and thinks "eh! that's a stick" and we travel on down the trail together. 

I LOVE THIS HORSE.

~E.G.