Sorry for the lack of neatness, I am posting from my phone.
Monday, October 17, 2011
What I have been doing these past few days...
Sorry for the lack of neatness, I am posting from my phone.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Adventures with Stan
My adventures with Stanley began in 2006, and I can’t believe how gangly he was back then!!
He started as just a “potential” project. A horse they had gotten out of pity, I believe. A “temporary” horse until something better came along. A horse that hadn’t spent much time out of a stall/field setting. A horse who didn’t understand how to go above a trot with a rider on his back. An obnoxious cribber who always wore his collar.
And then we met. *cue fireworks and dreamy love music*
We dabbled in a little bit of everything, mostly just getting out into the big world so he could experience everything and not be a giant pansy any more. Slowly he learned how fun riding could be. And we slowly started to bond – before I even realized what was happening.
And so Sonya decided we should enter a local show. I practiced up on my posting (which I didn’t know how to do prior) technique for ring work, Stan learned better English and western headsets and how his gaits should be – though he never could slow enough for a western jog. And come late July, we showed.
Not an enjoyable experience for either of us. But a
learning experience nonetheless, and an experience I’m thankful to have
had!
We ended up winning English high-point! Something that made Stan a little less temporary.
Shortly after the show Sonya decided Stan would undergo surgery for his cribbing issue. That knocked him out of commission for a week or so. But it was successful and he was no longer a cribber, and thereby, even less temporary.
We were soon back out on the trails gallivanting and having a jolly good time of it.
By the spring of 2007 Sonya had talked me into training for our club’s first sponsored endurance race that would be held in August. I didn’t even know what endurance racing was. But she printed off two training schedules and at the beginning of March we started training. Riding five days a week for 1 – 3 hours each time until August 7th.
The endurance race was amazing. He loved it. I loved it. And despite our greenness toward the sport we nearly won it (he trotted out lame at the last vet check because snotty people didn’t let me know until after the fact that I could have put a shoe on him first, SIGH). The little horse that used to be so slow was now a boogier, on the trail at any rate! His time of 4 hours and 15-ish minutes for a 30-mile limited distance race made him irreplaceable in the eyes of his owners. He was now a permanent resident.
He loves the trail so much more than ring work. The only thing that perks his ears with ring work is jumping. We schooled around on a few verticals that were set up on the ring near his barn a few times. He really loved it. I was so surprised. We tooled around doing other random things in the months and years that followed the endurance race. His ownership situation got a little rocky which led to me seeing him less. But we try to get out and about when we can.
He’s still my favorite horse ever. Even if he has tried to (and succeeded ONCE) eject me a time or two.
I love my Appendix QH, because as far as I'm concerned - or a lot of people who know our relationship, he is mine and I am his. No matter who pays his bills and has his papers. A paper trail is nothing compared to the bond we share.
He started as just a “potential” project. A horse they had gotten out of pity, I believe. A “temporary” horse until something better came along. A horse that hadn’t spent much time out of a stall/field setting. A horse who didn’t understand how to go above a trot with a rider on his back. An obnoxious cribber who always wore his collar.
And then we met. *cue fireworks and dreamy love music*
We dabbled in a little bit of everything, mostly just getting out into the big world so he could experience everything and not be a giant pansy any more. Slowly he learned how fun riding could be. And we slowly started to bond – before I even realized what was happening.
And so Sonya decided we should enter a local show. I practiced up on my posting (which I didn’t know how to do prior) technique for ring work, Stan learned better English and western headsets and how his gaits should be – though he never could slow enough for a western jog. And come late July, we showed.
 |
| Ah ,the cribber collar; his mane took 3 hours for me to do, UGH! But he does look snazzy. |
 |
| I LOVE this photo, he looks so trim and athletic. Note his rear right that he tangled in barbed wire (wtf? the fencing for his whole field is electric wire...freak accident, seriously) the week of the show. |
 |
| Wish I'd had brown chaps... |
 |
| Pow-wow out of the 90 degree heat; obv. I was sick of stirrups haha. |
 |
| Sweet boy fell asleep with his head in my lap; he was so exhausted from the heat. |
We ended up winning English high-point! Something that made Stan a little less temporary.
 |
| I still have those tennis shoes somewhere...I've had them since 4th grade! |
Shortly after the show Sonya decided Stan would undergo surgery for his cribbing issue. That knocked him out of commission for a week or so. But it was successful and he was no longer a cribber, and thereby, even less temporary.
We were soon back out on the trails gallivanting and having a jolly good time of it.
 |
| Like I said, I'm a self-taught jumper. |
 |
| Built this hump of a jump in the woods to tool around on. |
By the spring of 2007 Sonya had talked me into training for our club’s first sponsored endurance race that would be held in August. I didn’t even know what endurance racing was. But she printed off two training schedules and at the beginning of March we started training. Riding five days a week for 1 – 3 hours each time until August 7th.
 |
| Bad to the bone...right? |
 |
| Weeee! |
 |
| Running is funz! |
 |
| He wouldn't look at the camera. |
 |
| He still has his little cheek spot. |
The endurance race was amazing. He loved it. I loved it. And despite our greenness toward the sport we nearly won it (he trotted out lame at the last vet check because snotty people didn’t let me know until after the fact that I could have put a shoe on him first, SIGH). The little horse that used to be so slow was now a boogier, on the trail at any rate! His time of 4 hours and 15-ish minutes for a 30-mile limited distance race made him irreplaceable in the eyes of his owners. He was now a permanent resident.
 |
| About to start lap two |
 |
| Sponging |
 |
| Creek crossing |
He loves the trail so much more than ring work. The only thing that perks his ears with ring work is jumping. We schooled around on a few verticals that were set up on the ring near his barn a few times. He really loved it. I was so surprised. We tooled around doing other random things in the months and years that followed the endurance race. His ownership situation got a little rocky which led to me seeing him less. But we try to get out and about when we can.
 | |
| Pointy butt & The CLAW. Their nicknames. |
 |
| Wooohoooooooooo! |
He’s still my favorite horse ever. Even if he has tried to (and succeeded ONCE) eject me a time or two.
 |
| 2008: The only time he hucked me off; my idiot fault for riding him in one of his fields. |
 |
| I got back on; wish I had a good shot of my other side, SO much muddier! |
 |
| The very next day, he tried it again w/ me bareback; photo 3 is the best for height. lol |
I love my Appendix QH, because as far as I'm concerned - or a lot of people who know our relationship, he is mine and I am his. No matter who pays his bills and has his papers. A paper trail is nothing compared to the bond we share.
**All photos from 2006 - 2008, hard to believe!
***
I will be in New Jersey for the next 5 days. I'll try to update with a
photo or two if I find some time so y'all can see what awesomeness I'm
getting into. I'm SO excited!
HAVE A GREAT FEW DAYS!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Lovely Blog Award
Jordan
and Laura have both nominated me for this award [thank you, thank you!] and it seems its going
around like wildfire so instead of “nominating” others I will follow
Laura’s lead and simply post out 15 of my favorite reads for others to
hopefully find interest in:
And now the obligatory 7 things about myself!
- I am a GIS guru; I never thought I’d enjoy sitting inside at a desk, but mapping makes everything better for me!
- I love to knit – seasonally. I’m
a hat wizard, and my newest joy is knitting kids hats, its like instant
gratification – since they’re so small they finish so quick!
- Spiders freak me the hell out.
- Snakes do not.
- Murky
water scares the hell out of me also, I think it’s a “fear of the
unknown” bit; its part of the reason I quit whitewater kayaking.
- I sold my whitewater kayak in order to buy my dog.
- Microsoft Excel and I are not friends. Oh, and Citrix is a dirty word.
And an extra, because its on TV right now; the new Sonic hotdogs SUCK and are NOT as good looking as the commercial makes them appear!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Jumping Lessons
So my jumping lessons have begun.
I’ve
had two thus far & am uncertain when I will be able to fit the next
in as I am leaving Thursday night to go to New Jersey to do something
amazing.
I doubt my form is anywhere near correct (feel free to leave suggestions, constructive criticism encouraged). But I’m self-taught to this point, and according to this instructor I’m not awful. She actually dotes on me a bit, but I’m very hesitant to believe it as I feel there is so much more to do/fix. I’m
pursuing another instructor also for a few lessons (god knows when that
will be with my busy schedule!) because I know this lady will kick my
ass into shape. She’s one tough cookie with tons of experience to boot! Not to say my current choice of instructor isn’t, I just don’t know as much about her.
I did have the pleasure of hacking around on the 4 year old TB mare the instructor owns after my lesson. She doesn’t get ridden often enough and needs work. Its something I’m happy to do. Oh. My. Goodness, her stride! Its huge! I found myself wishing the ring were at least 2x if not 3x bigger. She ate it up. Her trot is so flowy and bouncy, and her canter just eats up the distance. I’ve ridden very few TBs in my horse experience, if they’re all like this I’m definitely up for more. It was magical.
My overall impression of jumping so far is a positive one. I almost think I could muster up the courage to show in this discipline. Dressage is another discipline I’m eager to learn the basics of, but it still intimidates the hell out of me. Mostly I just want to learn as much as I can about each discipline out there and see where they lead me. I love horses and all horse related activities, why not test the waters in each? I’m a bit big to be a jockey, but that’s still a childhood dream. Perhaps one day I will be able to breeze a couple racing TBs in their workout.
Oh to dreams.
Love & Strength
I send out love and strength to Andrea and the beautiful GoGo on this difficult day.
It takes but a minute to say hello, and forever to say goodbye, but we only part to meet again one day.
It takes but a minute to say hello, and forever to say goodbye, but we only part to meet again one day.
All the Pretty Horses
Over the years I have been lucky enough to ride nearly 70 different horses (yes, I've kept a list). I've wanted my OWN horse through ALL of these long 17 years I've been riding, but realizing it now, this has been a blessing. I'm a million times better a rider having ridden all these different horses than I would have been otherwise. I never had an opportunity to "get comfortable" with a horse. I always had to adapt to their differences. Stan was the closest I came to "getting comfortable".
This is the story of my lessons.
My journey began as a five year old with a local farrier's pony, Rocky. Maybe this early experience has led to my preference for bay colored horses later in life... Its hard to say. Rocky was a patient pony, he was good with me and my naïveté.
Another horse, the first full-size horse I was allowed to ride on my own, was Skip. I only rode this horse one time, maybe twice. But I'll never forget that first taste of freedom, getting to be alone and in control of guiding him around the ring. Granted, he was experienced and probably just did his own thing despite my urgings, but he was good. My childhood best friend Chelsey and her dad knew the people who owned him. Chels and I got to ride him and his pasture-mate Cricket, a buckskin mare I regret not having a photo of her.
Demo (dee-moh) was one of my greatest teachers. I began taking lessons with a high school girl (Phoebe) while I was in 4th grade. Once a week she would meet us after school (the HS and elementary were across a road from each other) and my mom would drive us to Phoebe's house (30 minutes away) and I would trail ride with her. Phoebe didn't push me too hard, too fast, but I wasn't coddled by any means. She would basically go on a trail ride she liked, and I tagged along. I was expected to keep up or catch up. If she was galloping, I could either hold Demo back at a trot or go with. He was a great horse. Got me through a lot of my first woodsy horseback adventures. We encountered all the same kinds of things I encounter nowadays. He was a remarkable horse.
Jewel, the appaloosa gelding in the below shot, was the first horse I ever fell off.
I would ride Jewel when Demo needed a break for whatever reason. He was okay, but he was no Demo. One particularly raucous ride we were running the horses home (yeah, I know, idiot decision). Phoebe was leading on her black horse Ebony and Jewel and I were following. I was way out of control and not balanced on this horse's back. Je was so un-Demo and he was also cantering which was something I had minimal experience with at that point. I lost balance, got bumped far forward, grasped his neck in desperation, slipped slowly forward and under, and then I fell underneath him cracking my helmeted head against the gravel drive and watched as four steel-shod hooves sailed over my body and face.
As a result I wouldn't ride a horse above a trot - without tears - for another three years.
Part of my long hiatus from cantering/galloping was due to the fact that there was a year in there when I didn't ride at all. Then I began weekly lessons (45 minutes away) at a riding stable where Chels and a couple of my other friends were riding. I rode many horses while I was there. When pushed to canter, I would always break into tears. One day a horse broke me of that, I don't remember which horse, but whoever he was (I almost ALWAYS rode geldings there) he showed me that disaster didn't have to strike. I'm grateful for whichever gelding that was and my riding instructor for pushing me outside of my comfort zone.
And so I continued learning, and slowly fell in love with speed.
With time my abilities to sit just about anything had advanced to the point where my riding instructor let me "train" (read: I was the only one who rode him) a particularly unruly gelding she had, Yogi - or by his appropriately registered AQHA alias, Buck Destiny (PS, if anyone in the world has met this horse or knows where he is now, I'd love to hear!).
Yogi, as his registered name suggests, had a bucking problem. He was an angel until you'd put in into a lope, and then the fun began. I never really got to see how high he threw them, but judging by the images I've seen of other horses and the way the rider was seated, it looks similar to what I was experiencing. Honestly, I never had an issue with his bucks. I never, ever came off. I don't even recall coming close. Since he only threw bucks in the lope, they just seemed like an extra deep part of the motion to me - he was so polite about it. I didn't even notice what was going on. My mom and riding instructor would always joke that I must have Velcro between my ass and the saddle. Yogi did get much better with time and eventually quit bucking when I rode him.
The first horse to teach me real speed was a little Appy X mare named Misty. We jaunted around on a few trails and at a fun show. Little lady loved to boogy. And while I found it terrifying to go so fast at that time (my first experience truly galloping), there was something thrilling about it.
By this time, I was in 7th grade. My three best friends all had horses of their own at this point. One was kept at the riding instructor's place, and the other two were kept (one still IS kept) where I had Orion originally. I began going out with my friends and trail riding on one of their horses, or one of Linda's - the lady who owns the place. These two horses, a leopard Appaloosa named Apache - featured earlier this summer on here - and a Polish Arab named Luke (RIP buddy, 2010) taught me even more.
These horses were the first I experienced a full-out gallop on. They learned with us as we learned on the trails. We got lost and found together. We gallivanted and probably did a lot of things we shouldn't have (i.e. trespassing), but you seriously couldn't ask for a better learning experience! In hindsight, it's a miracle I survived these years...
Sophomore year of HS another horse showed up at Linda's while his owner was in Alaska for a year or so. Sipapu (sih-pah-poo), another Appaloosa, was the horse I'd fallen off the most until I met Q (hahahahaha). Most of my falls were for silly reasons, but one was very epic.
We were cantering along a gravel back road - where we did a lot of our riding - and we slipped. He slipped. For those of you not familiar w/ a back mountain gravel road, they're built into the side of a mountain. One side of the road is a small ditch and then uphill, and the other side typically falls off quick and sharp and goes for awhile. And no, there are no guard rails. Well, horses who are barefoot (all of these horses all their lives) like to be on the edges of these roads where its softest. Sip got too close that day, he slipped and started going over the edge, so I bailed. Epic fail on my part. He regained himself, his feet scrambling. I was on the road lying on my back through his scrambling and he used MY CHEST to stand up on. His hoof and his 1,110-pound body putting pressure directly on my chest. Luckily for me, he placed his hoof directly over my sternum which protected me from any internal damage. Nonetheless, it was definitely the scariest moment of my equine career to date!
More adventures with these horses continued through the years. Sip went back home after a wonderful year of him as "my" horse. I sadly discovered that he died the following winter after he left due to ingesting too many dried maple tree leaves. He was a good boy.
The adventures slacked off for a year-ish though. And so I sought out other options because unlike my friends at that point in life, I couldn't be swayed with other activities. My mind was all horses all the time.
With time I ended up at the [then] Pony Garage. Sonya, the lady in charge of the barn, is like family to me now. We're still very close.
Sonya started me riding on her two mares she'd owned most of her life. Brandy, the bay, was a speed lover. She'd been a barrel racer for many years of her life, damn good too. She made me realize I could never run barrels though. We did it a couple times. Knocking a barrel over forcefully with my shin once did it for me though.
It was only a short time before Sonya realized I was capable of a greener mount to challenge and hone my skills more. And so my adventures with Stan slowly began (a lengthy story chronicled throughout the blog).
But there were be many occasions when I could ride another horse still. This horse was one of those experiences:
Mack had never been outside of a stall or field or ring, and I took him on a 6 hour trail ride. He was at the barn for training to become a very spiffy western pleasure show horse. I got to show him that life could be a little more than walking in circles though. He went from "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT!" at the beginning of the day to "Oh. My. God. Is. It. Overrr?!" by the end of the day. Horse wouldn't walk over a culverted pipe under the road, was afraid of trash cans, birds, cows, trees, leaves, lines painted on the road, fire hydrants, other horses, flags, trailers, and some people. But not by the end of the day! It was a pivotal point for me watching what time and miles could do for a horse.
A few more horses interlaced these years in my life, but my adventures with Stan really began to take over. I became very accustomed to the 15.3hh QH. We were learning together. His quirks and mine began to match up. We started to get really in sync. Needless to say, the opportunity to try my skill on a lesser (ONLY IN HEIGHT!) horse was an opportunity I couldn't resist...
Ferdinand, affectionately called Ferdie (a Section B Welsh Pony), taught me a quick lesson regarding my view towards ponies though! I schooled him a handful of times and never had an issue. And then one day he came to the show (little guy had some HUGE national awards jumping) with his little girls. They were done with him for the day and so I got to take a ride on him to help him burn off some energy. It went well, I mean, other than the fact that everyone and their brother was laughing their ass off at me on this little pony. After the ring work (even some jumping!) we went out back into the big field to run off some [more] energy. Well, little man got a little hyped up and flew into a bucking rage. I did pretty well...until the seventh buck. He got me off on that one. And proceeded to frolic away from me through the field. Little snot. Never under estimate size, I never will again!
My time with Stan has [perhaps] ended. It is significantly less than it used to be. And I'm back to schooling on many different horses on many different days. Its fun, but I do miss the connection. I know I'll find it again someday. When I do, I hope I still find time to keep my skills up-to-date on other horses though. Its really a phenomenal thing, riding and experiencing so much. I honestly wouldn't trade it for the world!
This is the story of my lessons.
My journey began as a five year old with a local farrier's pony, Rocky. Maybe this early experience has led to my preference for bay colored horses later in life... Its hard to say. Rocky was a patient pony, he was good with me and my naïveté.
 |
| Rocky |
Another horse, the first full-size horse I was allowed to ride on my own, was Skip. I only rode this horse one time, maybe twice. But I'll never forget that first taste of freedom, getting to be alone and in control of guiding him around the ring. Granted, he was experienced and probably just did his own thing despite my urgings, but he was good. My childhood best friend Chelsey and her dad knew the people who owned him. Chels and I got to ride him and his pasture-mate Cricket, a buckskin mare I regret not having a photo of her.
 |
| Skip |
Demo (dee-moh) was one of my greatest teachers. I began taking lessons with a high school girl (Phoebe) while I was in 4th grade. Once a week she would meet us after school (the HS and elementary were across a road from each other) and my mom would drive us to Phoebe's house (30 minutes away) and I would trail ride with her. Phoebe didn't push me too hard, too fast, but I wasn't coddled by any means. She would basically go on a trail ride she liked, and I tagged along. I was expected to keep up or catch up. If she was galloping, I could either hold Demo back at a trot or go with. He was a great horse. Got me through a lot of my first woodsy horseback adventures. We encountered all the same kinds of things I encounter nowadays. He was a remarkable horse.
 |
| A very serious me (in a turtle shirt) on Demo |
 |
| Demo and I - note my epic coat around my waist & denim vest, a sign of the 90s! |
Jewel, the appaloosa gelding in the below shot, was the first horse I ever fell off.
I would ride Jewel when Demo needed a break for whatever reason. He was okay, but he was no Demo. One particularly raucous ride we were running the horses home (yeah, I know, idiot decision). Phoebe was leading on her black horse Ebony and Jewel and I were following. I was way out of control and not balanced on this horse's back. Je was so un-Demo and he was also cantering which was something I had minimal experience with at that point. I lost balance, got bumped far forward, grasped his neck in desperation, slipped slowly forward and under, and then I fell underneath him cracking my helmeted head against the gravel drive and watched as four steel-shod hooves sailed over my body and face.
As a result I wouldn't ride a horse above a trot - without tears - for another three years.
Part of my long hiatus from cantering/galloping was due to the fact that there was a year in there when I didn't ride at all. Then I began weekly lessons (45 minutes away) at a riding stable where Chels and a couple of my other friends were riding. I rode many horses while I was there. When pushed to canter, I would always break into tears. One day a horse broke me of that, I don't remember which horse, but whoever he was (I almost ALWAYS rode geldings there) he showed me that disaster didn't have to strike. I'm grateful for whichever gelding that was and my riding instructor for pushing me outside of my comfort zone.
And so I continued learning, and slowly fell in love with speed.
With time my abilities to sit just about anything had advanced to the point where my riding instructor let me "train" (read: I was the only one who rode him) a particularly unruly gelding she had, Yogi - or by his appropriately registered AQHA alias, Buck Destiny (PS, if anyone in the world has met this horse or knows where he is now, I'd love to hear!).
 |
| Yogi - the buck-meister |
Yogi, as his registered name suggests, had a bucking problem. He was an angel until you'd put in into a lope, and then the fun began. I never really got to see how high he threw them, but judging by the images I've seen of other horses and the way the rider was seated, it looks similar to what I was experiencing. Honestly, I never had an issue with his bucks. I never, ever came off. I don't even recall coming close. Since he only threw bucks in the lope, they just seemed like an extra deep part of the motion to me - he was so polite about it. I didn't even notice what was going on. My mom and riding instructor would always joke that I must have Velcro between my ass and the saddle. Yogi did get much better with time and eventually quit bucking when I rode him.
The first horse to teach me real speed was a little Appy X mare named Misty. We jaunted around on a few trails and at a fun show. Little lady loved to boogy. And while I found it terrifying to go so fast at that time (my first experience truly galloping), there was something thrilling about it.
 |
| Misty |
By this time, I was in 7th grade. My three best friends all had horses of their own at this point. One was kept at the riding instructor's place, and the other two were kept (one still IS kept) where I had Orion originally. I began going out with my friends and trail riding on one of their horses, or one of Linda's - the lady who owns the place. These two horses, a leopard Appaloosa named Apache - featured earlier this summer on here - and a Polish Arab named Luke (RIP buddy, 2010) taught me even more.
 |
| Luke, and his person, Barbara |
These horses were the first I experienced a full-out gallop on. They learned with us as we learned on the trails. We got lost and found together. We gallivanted and probably did a lot of things we shouldn't have (i.e. trespassing), but you seriously couldn't ask for a better learning experience! In hindsight, it's a miracle I survived these years...
Sophomore year of HS another horse showed up at Linda's while his owner was in Alaska for a year or so. Sipapu (sih-pah-poo), another Appaloosa, was the horse I'd fallen off the most until I met Q (hahahahaha). Most of my falls were for silly reasons, but one was very epic.
We were cantering along a gravel back road - where we did a lot of our riding - and we slipped. He slipped. For those of you not familiar w/ a back mountain gravel road, they're built into the side of a mountain. One side of the road is a small ditch and then uphill, and the other side typically falls off quick and sharp and goes for awhile. And no, there are no guard rails. Well, horses who are barefoot (all of these horses all their lives) like to be on the edges of these roads where its softest. Sip got too close that day, he slipped and started going over the edge, so I bailed. Epic fail on my part. He regained himself, his feet scrambling. I was on the road lying on my back through his scrambling and he used MY CHEST to stand up on. His hoof and his 1,110-pound body putting pressure directly on my chest. Luckily for me, he placed his hoof directly over my sternum which protected me from any internal damage. Nonetheless, it was definitely the scariest moment of my equine career to date!
 |
| Sip |
 |
| Sip and I and my magical hair cut |
More adventures with these horses continued through the years. Sip went back home after a wonderful year of him as "my" horse. I sadly discovered that he died the following winter after he left due to ingesting too many dried maple tree leaves. He was a good boy.
The adventures slacked off for a year-ish though. And so I sought out other options because unlike my friends at that point in life, I couldn't be swayed with other activities. My mind was all horses all the time.
 |
| "Another option", Halflingers! So hard to keep my seat on such a broad back! I love my facial expression here. |
With time I ended up at the [then] Pony Garage. Sonya, the lady in charge of the barn, is like family to me now. We're still very close.
Sonya started me riding on her two mares she'd owned most of her life. Brandy, the bay, was a speed lover. She'd been a barrel racer for many years of her life, damn good too. She made me realize I could never run barrels though. We did it a couple times. Knocking a barrel over forcefully with my shin once did it for me though.
 |
| On Brandy |
It was only a short time before Sonya realized I was capable of a greener mount to challenge and hone my skills more. And so my adventures with Stan slowly began (a lengthy story chronicled throughout the blog).
But there were be many occasions when I could ride another horse still. This horse was one of those experiences:
Mack had never been outside of a stall or field or ring, and I took him on a 6 hour trail ride. He was at the barn for training to become a very spiffy western pleasure show horse. I got to show him that life could be a little more than walking in circles though. He went from "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT!" at the beginning of the day to "Oh. My. God. Is. It. Overrr?!" by the end of the day. Horse wouldn't walk over a culverted pipe under the road, was afraid of trash cans, birds, cows, trees, leaves, lines painted on the road, fire hydrants, other horses, flags, trailers, and some people. But not by the end of the day! It was a pivotal point for me watching what time and miles could do for a horse.
A few more horses interlaced these years in my life, but my adventures with Stan really began to take over. I became very accustomed to the 15.3hh QH. We were learning together. His quirks and mine began to match up. We started to get really in sync. Needless to say, the opportunity to try my skill on a lesser (ONLY IN HEIGHT!) horse was an opportunity I couldn't resist...
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| Ferdie |
Ferdinand, affectionately called Ferdie (a Section B Welsh Pony), taught me a quick lesson regarding my view towards ponies though! I schooled him a handful of times and never had an issue. And then one day he came to the show (little guy had some HUGE national awards jumping) with his little girls. They were done with him for the day and so I got to take a ride on him to help him burn off some energy. It went well, I mean, other than the fact that everyone and their brother was laughing their ass off at me on this little pony. After the ring work (even some jumping!) we went out back into the big field to run off some [more] energy. Well, little man got a little hyped up and flew into a bucking rage. I did pretty well...until the seventh buck. He got me off on that one. And proceeded to frolic away from me through the field. Little snot. Never under estimate size, I never will again!
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| The Arab mare behind us was the first Arabian I had a lot of experience with. She was more like Q than any horse I've ever met |
My time with Stan has [perhaps] ended. It is significantly less than it used to be. And I'm back to schooling on many different horses on many different days. Its fun, but I do miss the connection. I know I'll find it again someday. When I do, I hope I still find time to keep my skills up-to-date on other horses though. Its really a phenomenal thing, riding and experiencing so much. I honestly wouldn't trade it for the world!
"In riding a horse we are borrowing freedom"
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