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Sep. 19th, 2004 07:59 pmWell, I didn't die.
For people coming late to our story, my insane red horse Nick has been broken to ride, insofar as she *is* broken to ride, entirely by my hand. I was the first person to sit on her, the first person to saddle her, the first person to ride her (only three people have ever been aboard, and two of them were only on for teeny amounts of time), the person who taught her to load on a trailer, the person who taught her to be bridled, the person who taught her to stop and turn and back up. The skills she has are skills I have taught her.
How did the not-dying go? Nick was was pleasant to catch. She waited patiently for the trailer to show up instead of dancing around like a lunatic. She hopped right on the trailer like an expert. (This is about the tenth time she's been hauled anywhere for real. We did spend two days, about a year and a half, two years ago, getting on and off a trailer about a hundred times... That was boring as hell. However, I've seen horses that *will not* load... compared to that, the hundred loadings were time well spent. Non-loading horses are dangerous, stressful, and entirely unrewarding to own.)
When we got there, she hung out peacefully (It probably sounds dumb to normal people that I mention stuff like "stands quietly and patiently..." Unless you've been the owner of a horse that DOES NOT stand quietly and patiently, you probably have no idea how beautiful it is to have a horse that's good at quiet, patient standing.) while we got organized instead of pawing or circling nervously. She stood still to be saddled and bridled instead of acting like the saddlepad had big teeth and an appetite for horseflesh. She stood still while I got on instead of dancing in circles. She stood still for saddle fit checking, unsaddling, re-saddling, rechecking fit, and finally unsaddling and me wriggling aboard bareback less-than-gracefully. (The saddle that fit her pretty well last year does not fit this year -- her frame has changed -- and I won't make her wear something that doesn't fit.) She walked like a sane, well-behaved horse as we went along the trail up the mountain, across the mountain, as we came down, and as we headed home. She stood like a normal horse while I got off and untacked her. She loaded in the trailer like a good horse. She unloaded when we got to the house like she was a good horse. I put her back in the field and told her she was a good horse... but I'm thinking I need to check the field for pods. :) Clearly, this is not my insane red horse.
For people keeping track, La rode Jasmine. Galen took Vanity, Cass took Chelsea, Liss took Martini, Trys took Proof's baby, Connie took Coq (pronounced Coke), and I took Nick. In relative order of greeness, from least to most: Coq, Chelsea, Vanity, Martini, Jasmine, Nick, Proof's baby. The first four are pretty solid. The last three were (in my eyes) iffy. I may have to rank Nick higher than Jasmine here directly... she did that well and was that pleasant to be around.
There's a ride up towards Lynn's house next weekend. I will be taking the insane red horse. Today proved that we can do small, quiet rides with zero traffic if we are with people/horses we know well. We need to move on to something a little more challenging. *sigh* There is no way to do this but to do it. The ride up by Lynn's will be a public outing with a much larger group (this will probably not be a problem), strange horses and strange people. There might be cars, but on big-group rides, the cars slow down a LOT. They are not very scary cars. If we need to learn to do cars (we do), a big group with enough horses to make the cars slow down might not be a bad idea, especially if we get to be in the middle of the group. It'll be okay, I think. I hope.
For people coming late to our story, my insane red horse Nick has been broken to ride, insofar as she *is* broken to ride, entirely by my hand. I was the first person to sit on her, the first person to saddle her, the first person to ride her (only three people have ever been aboard, and two of them were only on for teeny amounts of time), the person who taught her to load on a trailer, the person who taught her to be bridled, the person who taught her to stop and turn and back up. The skills she has are skills I have taught her.
How did the not-dying go? Nick was was pleasant to catch. She waited patiently for the trailer to show up instead of dancing around like a lunatic. She hopped right on the trailer like an expert. (This is about the tenth time she's been hauled anywhere for real. We did spend two days, about a year and a half, two years ago, getting on and off a trailer about a hundred times... That was boring as hell. However, I've seen horses that *will not* load... compared to that, the hundred loadings were time well spent. Non-loading horses are dangerous, stressful, and entirely unrewarding to own.)
When we got there, she hung out peacefully (It probably sounds dumb to normal people that I mention stuff like "stands quietly and patiently..." Unless you've been the owner of a horse that DOES NOT stand quietly and patiently, you probably have no idea how beautiful it is to have a horse that's good at quiet, patient standing.) while we got organized instead of pawing or circling nervously. She stood still to be saddled and bridled instead of acting like the saddlepad had big teeth and an appetite for horseflesh. She stood still while I got on instead of dancing in circles. She stood still for saddle fit checking, unsaddling, re-saddling, rechecking fit, and finally unsaddling and me wriggling aboard bareback less-than-gracefully. (The saddle that fit her pretty well last year does not fit this year -- her frame has changed -- and I won't make her wear something that doesn't fit.) She walked like a sane, well-behaved horse as we went along the trail up the mountain, across the mountain, as we came down, and as we headed home. She stood like a normal horse while I got off and untacked her. She loaded in the trailer like a good horse. She unloaded when we got to the house like she was a good horse. I put her back in the field and told her she was a good horse... but I'm thinking I need to check the field for pods. :) Clearly, this is not my insane red horse.
For people keeping track, La rode Jasmine. Galen took Vanity, Cass took Chelsea, Liss took Martini, Trys took Proof's baby, Connie took Coq (pronounced Coke), and I took Nick. In relative order of greeness, from least to most: Coq, Chelsea, Vanity, Martini, Jasmine, Nick, Proof's baby. The first four are pretty solid. The last three were (in my eyes) iffy. I may have to rank Nick higher than Jasmine here directly... she did that well and was that pleasant to be around.
There's a ride up towards Lynn's house next weekend. I will be taking the insane red horse. Today proved that we can do small, quiet rides with zero traffic if we are with people/horses we know well. We need to move on to something a little more challenging. *sigh* There is no way to do this but to do it. The ride up by Lynn's will be a public outing with a much larger group (this will probably not be a problem), strange horses and strange people. There might be cars, but on big-group rides, the cars slow down a LOT. They are not very scary cars. If we need to learn to do cars (we do), a big group with enough horses to make the cars slow down might not be a bad idea, especially if we get to be in the middle of the group. It'll be okay, I think. I hope.
