(no subject)

[which_chick]

Mixed day today. Some things went well, some other things went not-so-well.



The road out of Emmaville has some traffic, but not a whole lot. On the way out, the IRH did a pretty solid job with vehicles of most sorts. They slowed down a lot but she wasn't ballistic or anything, acted like a pretty good horse, really. She did a good enough job that I was like, "La, are you sure you didn't get on this horse and provide her with some vehicle-based religion?" I asked because the horse is too improved. I haven't done anything to her that would cause the level of improvement that she is showing. Plus, there'd been what La'd said along about the beginning of June.

In an alternate reality, I'd be the sort of person who could leave that much alone. In this world, though, no. Things didn't fit.

La was like, "Yeah, I got on her."

*sigh*

"I figured if you never asked straight up, I didn't have to tell you." (Full disclosure: The IRH does not belong to me. I do not own her. She belongs to La's mother. My effective rights with this horse are nonexistent.)

"Ah. When?"

"After the thing at Clyde's. It was just the once. You're not mad?"

At that point, I lied.

So we go on and the conversation turns to other things and we get to the top of the mountain and turn around and ride back down it. We were going to go on out and make a big loop but the day was getting late and the kids were getting tired so we decided not to do that after all. Perhaps another time.

On the way back, there was a truck. It kind of slowed down but the IRH got all high and tight, which, y'know, she does. La's like "keep her moving forward" so I am working on that and then she starts to get stupid, the leapy-buck thing, so I grab one rein and turn her in a little circle and start beating on her with my other hand (because, yo, bad horse. I've taken shit from these people on the "you are not hitting this horse when she is bad" front for five years. And now there are people riding the horse who are not me and who neglect to mention that fact until I ask exactly the right questions. I am not going to be remiss on hitting-the-horse-when-she-is-bad, here. So, am hitting the horse with my bare hand on her large, muscled neck.) and all of this is going on while the truck goes by. Probably two or three whacks would have been fine, but I, er, got carried away/lost track. By whack seven or eight, Nick had had enough and I'd sort of forgotten about holding on to the reins. Nick bucked (impressively, I'm told) across the hard road and I lost whatever seat I had (bareback pad today because of saddle fit issues). I picked my fall instead of waiting for one to come to me after it was too late for me to pick. I didn't have a bad landing, either (I've done more than a few), just got scuffed up a bit and will have a few bruises in the morning.

That was annoying, but I think Nick's primary difficulty was not the vehicle but the fact that she feels two, maybe three hits were justified. I've made a note.

So, I came off the horse and landed on the ground. Where was the horse? The horse was at the other end of the blue oh-shit rigging which worked EXACTLY AS ADVERTISED. Horse was not pulling. Horse did not rip the reins out of my hands and go thundering over the countryside. That, right there, was a tremendous improvement over the previous state of affairs.

We saw one more car, during which the IRH was reasonably well behaved. Anyway, I'm not happy. I'm tired as hell and slightly bruised inside and out... but I'm mostly tired, with a taste like ashes in my mouth.

Comments

[wynnsfolly.livejournal.com]

I hate that you are beating yourself up over this. You are an incredibly talented independant woman, who is capable doing doing darn near anything. In this case, as marvelous as your relationship is from the ground up with Nick, you just can't communicate this one thing to her. I've been there with horses I've raised from birth, I just could not be the one to do everything they need. I'm not defending the way they went about this, nor minimizing the very valid way you feel, just offering my understanding of the place you are in with this situation.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

I'll get over it, honestly. La's got some very valid points, to wit If you die or get crippled coming off of that damn horse I will never forgive myself. Also, we're getting too old for this kind of crap. Also, it takes a lot of effort to let someone else do something badly, incorrectly, or incompetently while you (who can see the problem as plain as day and figure you could fix it in ten seconds or less) stand quietly by without offering advice, telling the do-er that he or she is doing it incorrectly, or taking over and doing it for him/her. She gave me four years, which is more than I'd have the patience to give anyone if I were in her position.