Teachers Part 4 - Roo

Roo was Steph's Intermediate head case horse. In all of my years before Roo, I thought I knew how to really sit and finesse a canter. This was not true. Not at ALL true. The first time I asked Roo to canter, we were careening around the 20 meter circle like a runaway train. Stop. Start over. Adjust body. Don't ask for canter, just think it. Pull in a breath and lift the inside hip. Ok. Now let the canter pour into your hand without letting it escape. Ok. We're balanced! Now we're getting quick, on two wheels. Tighten through the lower abs. Slight hold in the lower back. Catch the energy. Redirect. Back to balance. Whew!
This was our endless cycle. I very quickly learned the fine art of keeping Roo balanced on four wheels in the canter. It was a wonderful feeling.
Roo also taught me about half-pass. Once I figured him out, Roo was incredibly fun to ride on the flat. However, I never caught on to the "fun" of Roo over fences. He actually kind of horrified me over fences, and after a few times over grids on him, I begged off ever jumping him again. This was because you basically had to ride him backwards to the fences or he jumped like crap. And even when you rode him backwards, he still always felt frenzied. It wasn't fun in any sense of the word for me.
Aside from being a great dressage teacher for me, Roo was also a pretty cool, super weird horse to be around. He weaved so much and so hard that the wood floor in his stall had two dents in it from Roo's hooves. In the mornings, if he had to wait to go out, he would stand there weaving faster and faster until we could take him outside. Talk about a neurotic boy. When Steph and I were in Florida, I hurt my ankle and ended up on crutches. When I went out to the barn, I learned how Roo earned that name. His eyes grew as big as saucers when he saw the crutches, and his ears pricked so far forward that they almost touched. He looked pretty much like this:

It was pretty adorable!
Speaking of adorable, during our trip to Florida, we often had the horses sleep out in the field at night. I mean, the weather was so nice, they deserved to enjoy it! Well, one morning, Steph and I padded out to the barn at dawn, as usual, and as the sun peeked over the horizon, through the mist we saw Roo and Kess, curled up and sleeping together in the sand near the pasture gate. To this day, I wish I had gotten a picture of that.
Anyway, while we were in Florida, Roo found a new person. It was a girl from Mississippi who got along brilliantly with him, and Steph was finally able to sell him. The girl absolutely adored him, and we were all happy to see him go to such a great new family. Unfortunately, round about a year later, maybe a little more, I was talking to Steph and asked about Roo. Turns out that he colicked pretty terribly and had to be put down. I think he was only 14 or 15. It still makes me sad to think about that happening to poor Roo, but at least we know he was with a family who loved him very much when he died. Thank-you, Roo! You are missed!