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I was speaking with my friend Jody the other day and she was commenting on the recent post I added, “Things in the trees”, she brought up a good point.  Since the story was about a ride I had a year ago she wondered if other readers would think I haven’t ridden since then as I had no new riding posts for this year.  Well in case you readers are wondering… yes, I have ridden since last year!  Not as often as I would like too, but I do ride when I get the chance.  And here are a couple pictures that mom caught of me riding Slick and Pal recently as proof!!  Of course it would have been great for all of you if mom would have been outside the day I decided to ride Chief after lunging him in a surcingle and pad…

Yeah, my 40 year old brain kicked in and started reminding my how the 21 yr old girl that I work with, Sarah, rides her horse all the time in a bareback pad… 

Ya know the ol’ brain tricks…

“Yeah let’s see if you can even get on your horse with just a pad on… Sarah can…”  (For those of you that don’t know Chief he is a BIG boy, all I have in the arena area is a tree root…)  The first attempt I just knocked the wind out of myself as my chest hit squarely on his side!  “Sarah can probalby jump higher than that!”yeah yeah shut up brain… I did somewhat better the second try, but on the third try I was able to scramble up. Of course the pad was completely in front of my lap and I was sitting back almost on his rump… did I mention what a great horse Chief is???  So I then did a few yoga moves I have seen and managed to get the pad back under my hind-end. 

“HA! Let’s see Sarah try that!”  I told my brain as we began walking around.

“So your on, big deal, you are walking, woooooo impressive, ya know Sarah can ride Rocky in a pad at a trot…”  (I tried this with Chief and was pretty successful.  In fact it wasn’t bad at all.  Pretty easy…)

 then my brain says

 “well Sarah can ride Rocky in a pad at the canter!”…  (I tried this and was pretty successful until the fourth left turn… )  You see what my brain forgot to remind me was that the girth I was using on the surcingle with a pad was certainly not snug, in fact I could get my whole arm under the thing!  Nope, that had completely slipped my mind as I was proudly cantering around the ring thinking…  

 “HA Brain take that! I can still…  AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!  Whoa, fence!”  (and once again I am left to wonder as I am sliding off the right side of Chief, surcingle,pad and all, watching the pipe fencing go by me ever so slowly… why again did I roach (cut off) all of Chiefs mane, and why did I listen to my stupid brain, I am not 21 years old any more!   Needless to say I have the best gosh darn horse in the world as I pulled myself back up off of his right side using the left rein!  sheeshh! and all he did was quietly come down to a walk, turn his head and eyeball me with the look of      ”hmmmm listening to your brain again huh?” 

Right after I recovered my heart from my thoart my mom came outside with her camera… “Oh are you all done riding?”  So I proceded to tell her of my harrowing account of nearly sliding off of my horse and over the fence into the hay field and my wonderful loving mother says… “Shoot! I would have liked to get a picture of that!!” 

Hope ya’ll enjoy the boring pictures of me staying on the horses!

Ah yes, Fall has arrived. This is my favorite time of the year.  The cool breezes, the beautiful yellows, golds, reds and greens in the quickly changing trees, the cranes coming in for winter, seeing the horses breath in the morning.  As I was reflecting on the joys of Fall today I thought of a ride I had last year at just about this time…

 I was recovering from a yucky cold and then with the weather being so chilly I just had not ridden as much as I know I should…

 (go back with me… one year ago…)

 I was finally feeling up to a ride yesterday, of course around this time yesterday it was getting cloudy and a bit windy but I got on anyway…  I rode my big guy first, Chief is an angel to ride pretty much all of the time so his ride was of course great.  Slick, aka “FireBall”, was next…  I am thinking, okay this will be a quick, simple ride, right Slick?   Man, he is such a red-head sometimes!  (no offense meant to those of the chestnut hair color). As soon as we got to the arena he could have sworn that something was flying out of the trees to eat him!  We kept going, I was determined he was just going to have to get over it, so around and around we went, just jogging, okay trying to just JOG!  But every time we would go around the corner by all the trees he would tense and scoot to the side, sheesh!!  “Oh come on! I just need a 20 to 30 minute ride! Don’t be such a chestnut!”  I yelled out loud to him.  I decided to be the dedicated and trained rider that I think I am and just “work thru it”, we did some suppling exercises in each corner, bend to the right, bend to the left, move the shoulders around, disengage the hindquarters, gait transitions up and down (walk – trot – walk – halt – walk – trot – etc…), Slick would relax at the other end of the arena a bit then we would come around and his head would go up, he would snort, off we would go to one side or the other… ok, that was not working, how about giving him something harder to think about, shoulder-in all the way around the arena… in both directions! Haunches-in, haunches-out, spiral circle in and out, flex the poll, ask for release, give to the bit… you name it I was trying everything I could think of… My head was starting to ache from my intense focus, my cold and the cold biting wind was certainly not helping with my ‘gentle patience’… even after a solid 45 minutes of “working thru it” Slick was still acting the same way.  I told myself he was playing his little red-head games and pretending to get scared at shadows just to have some fun at my expense.  (even though we all know horses do not reason or plan games to pull one over on their owner… never.)  “I am the Alpha here!  I am more scary than any thing else out here!” I hissed under my breath to Slick, you know so the neighbors would not think I was some crazy horse person yelling at my horse about the ‘Alpha’.  I had my long split western reins on so I gave him a few good pops on the shoulder, and a few even better pops on the behind for good measure, he settled ever so slightly but still would tense up when we would go by the corner… and he still managed a few more good scoots, actually a few leaps sideways across the arena too, well I fussed and cussed and called him all sorts of names, red-head being one of the nicer ones… my ears hurting from the wind, my nose running off my face (I had already used all the kleenex I had brought with me), I decided now was the time to go to the old stand by “keep ‘em moving forward”.  As my strength was waning we did manage to get in a lope (sorta more like a run) in each direction for few laps, I then concluded he was doing better, after my expert riding skills of “working thru” the situation and so on, plus it was getting late by now and the sun would be setting soon and I didn’t need him to be too sweaty when the sun went down, so I used my best judgment and decided it was time to just walk around and cool him down…  end on a positive note, I am sure I taught him something I thought to myself.  With a smug smirk on my face thinking I had finally gotten the better of Slick, I left the arena to walk him out in the hay pasture next to the arena… we made this big circle around the hay field and when we were coming back around, near the end of the arena, where the trees are, something caught my eye…

yep the neighbors kids had hung about a hundred little white ghosts in the trees on their side of the fence for Halloween that were happily flapping all over the place with the nice brisk breeze. 

The moral of the story that I learned yesterday…  no matter how many clinics we attend, videos of experts we watch, books we read, lessons we take or years in the saddle sometimes our horses judgment is clearer than ours… sometimes there really are things in the trees!

I came across this somewhere, not even sure how long I have had it, I think it has made the rounds via email a few times too, but I have it printed out and hanging in my studio.  I like to re-read it every now and again to remind me of what is truly important in my horsemanship.  I thought you might like to read it too…

Special “Thanks” for Our Horses

To have a horse in your life is a gift. In the matter of a few short
years, a horse can teach a young girl courage, if she chooses to grab
mane and hang on for dear life. Even the smallest of ponies is

mightier than the tallest of girls. To conquer the fear of falling
off, having one’s toes crushed, or being publicly humiliated at a
horse show is an admirable feat for any child. For that, we can be
grateful.

Horses teach us responsibility. Unlike a bicycle or a computer, a
horse needs regular care and most of it requires that you get dirty
and smelly and up off the couch. Choosing to leave your cozy kitchen
to break the crust of ice off the water buckets is to choose
responsibility. When our horses dip their noses and drink heartily; we
know we’ve made the right choice.

Learning to care for a horse is both an art and a science. Some are
easy keepers, requiring little more than regular turn-out, a flake of
hay, and a trough of clean water. Others will test you – you’ll
struggle to keep them from being too fat or too thin. You’ll have
their feet shod regularly only to find shoes gone missing. Some are so
accident-prone you’ll swear they’re intentionally finding new ways to
injure themselves.

If you weren’t raised with horses, you can’t know that they have
unique personalities. You’d expect this from dogs, but horses? Indeed,
there are clever horses, grumpy horses, and even horses with a sense
of humor. Those prone to humor will test you by finding new ways to
escape from the barn when you least expect it.

Horses can be timid or brave, lazy or athletic, obstinate or willing.
You will hit it off with some horses and others will elude you
altogether. There are as many “types” of horses as there are people -
which makes the whole partnership thing all the more interesting.
If you’ve never ridden a horse, you probably assume it’s a simple
thing you can learn in a weekend. You can, in fact, learn the basics
on a Sunday, but to truly ride well takes a lifetime. Working with a
living being is far more complex than turning a key in the ignition
and putting the car or tractor in “drive.”

In addition to listening to your instructor, your horse will have a
few things to say to you as well. On a good day, he’ll be happy to go
along with the program and tolerate your mistakes; on a bad day,
you’ll swear he’s trying to kill you. Perhaps he’s naughty or perhaps
he’s fed up with how slowly you’re learning his language. Regardless,
the horse will have an opinion. He may choose to challenge you (which
can ultimately make you a better rider) or he may carefully carry you
over fences – if it suits him. It all depends on the partnership – and
partnership is what it’s all about.

If you face your fears, swallow your pride, and are willing to work at
it, you’ll learn lessons in courage, commitment, and compassion in
addition to basic survival skills. You’ll discover just how hard
you’re willing to work toward a goal, how little you know, and how
much you have to learn.

And, while some people think the horse “does all the work”, you’ll be
challenged physically as well as mentally. Your horse may humble you
completely. Or, you may find that sitting on his back is the closest
you’ll get to heaven.

You can choose to intimidate your horse, but do you really want to?
The results may come more quickly, but will your work ever be as
graceful as that gained through trust? The best partners choose to
listen, as well as to tell. When it works, we experience a sweet sense
of accomplishment brought about by smarts, hard work, and mutual
understanding between horse and rider. These are the days when you
know with absolute certainty that your horse is enjoying his work.

If we make it to adulthood with horses still in our lives, most of us
have to squeeze riding into our oversaturated schedules; balancing our
need for things equine with those of our households and employers.
There is never enough time to ride, or to ride as well as we’d like.
Hours in the barn are stolen pleasures.

If it is in your blood to love horses, you share your life with them.
Our horses know our secrets; we braid our tears into their manes and
whisper our hopes into their ears. A barn is a sanctuary in an
unsettled world, a sheltered place where life’s true priorities are
clear: a warm pl ace to sleep, someone who loves us, and the luxury of
regular meals. Some of us need these reminders.

When you step back, it’s not just about horses – it’s about love,
life, and learning. On any given day, a friend is celebrating the
birth of a foal, a blue ribbon, or recovery from an illness. That same
day, there is also loss: a broken limb, a case of colic, a decision to
sustain a life or end it gently. As horse people, we share the
accelerated life cycle of horses: the hurried rush of life, love,
loss, and death that caring for these animals brings us. When our
partners pass, it is more than a moment of sorrow.

We mark our loss with words of gratitude for the ways our lives have
been blessed. Our memories are of joy, awe, and wonder. Absolute
union. We honor our horses for their brave hearts, courage, and
willingness to give.

To those outside our circle, it must seem strange. To see us in our
muddy boots, who would guess such poetry lives in our hearts? We
celebrate our companions with praise worthy of heroes. Indeed, horses
have the hearts of warriors and often carry us into and out of fields
of battle.

Listen to stories of that once-in-a-lifetime horse; of journeys made
and challenges met. The best of horses rise to the challenges we set
before them, asking little in return.

Those who know them understand how fully a horse can hold a human
heart. Together, we share the pain of sudden loss and the lingering
taste of long-term illness. We shoulder the burden of deciding when or
whether to end the life of a true companion.
In the end, we’re not certain if God entrusts us to our horses or our
horses to us. Does it matter? We’re grateful God loaned us the horse
in the first place.
- Author Unknown -