Stormy-A CautionaryTale

Stormy, HSE Horse Show, 28 years ago,or so.



I've told this story before, maybe it needs telling again. Skip altogether, or press ignore:)

When I was teaching at the large lesson barn, I often had horses fall into my lap. "Can you ride my horse?" I heard that a lot. It was great! Stormy was unique, though. Listen to this.

My Mom's mom had a housekeeper. Housekeeper's daughter was having a terrible time with her horse. Of course, I was called. The daughter, named X because I'm too lazy to think of another name for her, had decided, at the age of 40, with NO previous experience, to buy a horse.

X decided she wanted a gray horse. Of course, she went to the "Horses for Sale" ads in the Toronto Star. She answered an ad for a gray horse. Off X went, to a barn north of Toronto. You know who you are, Klemperer's. I hope you got better at horse dealing.

Anyway, gray horse was already sold by the time X got there, and instead, she was sold a 16 hand 7/8 TB solid bright bay gelding, 9 years old, hot as all hell. X had never ridden before. In their subsequent riding sessions, after purchase, Stormy proceeded to throw her, several times, until her back was just about broken.

That's when I was called. Let me tell you, the K's were not pleased to see me, when X brought me up to their barn. Dark, dingy filthy barn. Stormy was lame. Stormy's stall had several boards missing from the bottom perimeter. Perfect. Stormy had extreme thrush, and was (at least) not overly thin.

So, X was easily persuaded to move Stormy to "my" large school barn, where I'd "fit him up" and sell him for her. Oh, Stormy was fun. Let's go, go, go!! Kinda weedy-necked, kinda scrawny, but willing! Jump, let's jump!! I showed him schooling hunters, and we always placed (low), because he was very correct, just a little too fiery. He believed in speed hunting. Zoooom, that fox wouldn't have a chance. Stormy liked to pin his ears and look ferociously at you. He thought it was funny. Perfect beginner horse, eh? NOT.

Storm hated beginners. He never offered anything nasty to me, except once. We were galloping around the huge front field, kinda icy, lots of snow, with another rider. My right rein broke at the bit. Stormy smiled. We blasted back towards the barn, as fast as his legs could go, he slowed just long enough for me to jump off into a snow bank. Did I mention it was icy? He didn't want me on him for the sharper corners. I didn't want to be on him, reefing away uselessly on one rein. A smart horse, that Stormy was.

We did some low schooling jumpers once Stormy was stronger, got some good pictures, and started advertising him. Strongly stated in all of his ads that he was for high-intermediate/advanced riders only.

A 14 year old intermediate rider buyer was found, with her own property. She had a good trainer that I knew well. She and Stormy got along well, and of course father and daughter promised they would never, ever ride Stormy without the trainer present. I had a meeting with the three, and we carefully laid out plans for Stormy's future, always with the trainer present.

One month after Stormy was sold, I got a hysterical phone-call from X. The girl had ridden Stormy alone. Stormy bucked her off, and then (I KNOW) mock-charged the father when he came out to the ring to help.
The father got his gun, and killed Stormy right then and there. And then phoned X, to hurl abuse at her. Broke poor X's heart. Mine too.

True story, and believe me, I wish it wasn't.

People create problems for themselves with horses. Stormy's problem was his sense of humour & his fire. X's problem was of her own making. But what if we could get more articles out there to mention these sad truths?
Buy what you know you can ride. Taking chances on re-habbing the badly damaged takes time, lots and lots and lots of time. Do you have it? If you don't, do not buy that horse, no matter how sad his story is.

Take the time to learn what you need to know.
The hurry up and ride camps will disagree with me. I don't care. What happened to X never should have happened. With horse dealers like that in the world, who needs murderers? X was so lucky Stormy didn't kill her. Stormy, sadly, wasn't so lucky. It wasn't his fault.

Sure put the kibosh on me ever selling horses again, letmetellya! My next foray into horse selling was a similar story, a jug-headed mare named Spider, with a completely clueless new owner. They just seemed to find me..

On another note, again related to time, it's taken my Flip-dog four years to learn to retrieve. Blaze-puppy was retrieving almost from the moment she came home. All animals have particular talents. Some just don't have the talent you want. Blaze has taken almost three years to be a "perfect" retriever. It took time. I have lots, when it comes to training. If you don't, you shouldn't be training, at all.

To Horses. Take Your Time.

Oh, here's some postcards my sister sent me from Kentucky, in 1982. I was scanning Stormy anyway..
Citation.


Nashua.


Whirlaway - Triple Crown Winner. Nice horse, eh?


Goood grief, I am old.

For FernValley - Please feel better soon!
I cut this out of a magazine years and years and YearS ago (1967). No idea who he is. Must have loved him though. I only wish his dangles were darker.

GoLighteningUp

A picture of Flip and Blaze, back when they both could (sort of) fit into one dog bed. Flip isn't thrilled. She still hates having her picture taken indoors. The aggrieved look is always there.


And a picture from last winter, both girls wishing I'd quit with the clicking thing already..

That picture of me and GoLightly was a tough one to post. It was still early in our time together, and I was awed with each ride. I was gasping for breath in that pic. GoLightly's straightness was freakin' me out. My back, twisted and crimped through years of abuse, was thrilled at the lack of twist in GoLightly's back. I don't like that my heels are out ahead of me, but I think I was just trying to cool my inner legs off.
I never could do the shorts with chaps thing. Pinching of that kind of tissue isn't pleasant, especially in 90+ heat.

GoLightly was very long, and tall and straight as a darn steel die. See how GoLightly's head hangs? He's stretching himself out, after our school. That was his idea of long and low. Anybody starting to see what I'm saying? If I had had my leg further back, and on him, and I'd straightened from the half-seat I'm killing myself with here, GoLightly's neck would come "up" and his head would approach the vertical. Naturally.

I wasn't kidding when I said I used every second on GoLightly. He could relax. I kept working.



Equipoise. I love that name.
I found Leo Bear!
Totally fascinating. It must be him. 1970 Gelding. Only one. It must be him, oh, dear. If you look backwards in time, what do you see? Horse conformation has changed a bit, hasn't it?
It's not just me, is it?
I found another great link for conformation talking, but the woman wants money for in-depth. Piffle. Plus PDF alert. Crashed my damn computer.

Can anyone guess why GoLightly wasn't a grand prix jumper? It shows, in this shot.

Form and function. It counts, but not nearly as much as the temperament inside the horse's head.

I gotta go. For some weird reason, I feel like waving to Sarcasta.

Memes,Mimes,Memories

Memes and Mimes
BlueHeron, maybe because you guys like to change your avatars so much, the meme isn't happening in the blogger brain, in your particular area of the mass internet thingy dingy.
.
Memetics. How do we pick up on things? Where does it start?


Here's a really old newspaper pic of a girlfriend from my First/Worst barn, riding the AngloArab "Baska". About 1971 or so, after I left. Baska looks gaunt here. F/W guy died not long after. I don't remember what happened to Baska. I hope the girl shown riding him bought him, and they lived happily ever after. I hope.
Baska was an incredibly beautifully correct TB/Arab cross. Oh, was he forward! His idea of natural head carriage is about what you see here. Very similar to AofG's Arab mare,in his head carriage.

Look how much bit Baska has. That happened after I left. Baska had been wearing a snaffle, as far as I remember.. Baska could jump a 6' fence,if he felt like it. Or he'd just run away with you. I couldn't ride Baska to save my life. Baska was this girl's special buddy, just as this horse, The Saxon, was mine. Here we are in 1966 at Maplevalley Winter Schooling Show, Green Jumper Division.. The Saxon was a big old raw-boned TB/?? chestnut gelding, 16.2 or so.


My creepiac F/W "instructor" received these photo proofs after a show where I'd won some good ribbons. He was absolutely furious. The other proofs looked like this.


Talk about poster child for bad riding. But F/W never said what was wrong! I had no idea. I liked the one where my heels were down, and blew it up on a photo-copier. F/W could never articulate what I was doing wrong. And I was frightened by his anger. If you don't know what you are doing wrong, how is it fixed? Bear in mind I've been riding all of a year, at this point. I'm freakin' 11. So, I'm doing SOMEthing wrong, enough to anger the F/W creepyoid. And, I was afraid to ask.
Not a very good meme. How could I mime something, if I didn't know HOW?

I'm really good at seeing patterns, and learning to mime things. Look at That, BH!! I can't always remember "how" I learned, or gestalted whatever. Just who I is/was. I hope it doesn't get worse:) I'm very affected by what I read. Always have been. Constant reader, I was/is.

Getting On the Horse
I think part of our "brain freeze-up" when we get on, is the volume of how much you want to know, how much you want to achieve. It's overwhelming. It's part of why I think it's so important to work with your horse before you ride him. Check him out. How's he leading? Nicely? Good. How's he behaving? Standing? Good. Think about what ever you want to do with him. If he isn't with you on the ground, he won't be, under saddle.

Just think directly at him. Stay in his moment. Not yours. Yours fades away. of course, you are laying your hands all over him, by grooming and polishing him. But you are also memorizing him again. They can and do change a bit every day. Today is always new to your horse.

Relax as you groom him. I have never understood the avalanche of quicker, easier, better ways to not actually groom your horse, yourself. Ick, so dirty.. Dirt is GOOD for you. Not a lot. Honestly, massage & chiro have their places with those poor creatures damaged by us, but the healthy ones? Out in a field, doing light work, if any? A darned good grooming is all any horse wants from us. Feels soooo Goood, done right.

I'd stand in the aisle of the barn I briefly part-boarded at, and be struck by how little grooming anyone seemed to be doing. It was the "get it over with" part, the "gossip away" part. Horses find that insulting. "Why are you here?" thinks the horse.

But if you groom him up, his attitude softens. You can do massage and gentle flexings of all of his parts, to see how he's feeling. It just shows that you care.

GoLightly did have a fine coat, like the fiction. He did not woolly up in the winter. Whatever draft genes he had did not express in his coat. Oh, I wish I had a conformation shot of GoLightly!

I have a horrible shot of us cooling out, after that school.
Here it is..

Laugh away. Yes, crowds gathered to see my nickles. George Morris would be appalled. Shocked and appalled:) Yes, indeed. (Thanks, Mr. & Mrs. Small.)

I'm not finished, but I feel like I should say SOMEthing.

Okay, Okay, the Epiphany, Maybe

How do I put this? Hearing FernValley allow as how she's never used any type of longeing gadgetry/equipment, made my memory flash back In My Horse Time (IMHT). Way, way back, IMHT, horses still had heads up in the air.

They really have changed remarkably, haven't they? Well, if you're old like me, it's noticeable. It's why I've always sounded so surprised. I am, I ReallY am. Quarter Horses did NOT have level or lower as "normal". They just didn't. So, okay. The rock dweller (me) has arisen.

A lower natural head helps remove the need for the gadgets. I ThinK. And the only real "need" for the gadgets, is to initially help the horse know where he is to go, AND prepare him for the weight he's about to bear. Gadgets also lessen the probability of bucking. They don't eliminate it. I know.

But with a higher natural head carriage, a horse is also less able to buck. Never impossible. I know. Horses can do anything they want with their bodies, in the blink of a butterfly. With as little warning, too. The perfectly balanced within themselves capability is there until you weight them the first time. Lowering their head and stretching their necks down and forward shows them, prepares them physically, for your weight. Then you spend months building up his strength, so he can learn to carry you comfortably.

The initial ground work, leading, tying, grooming manners, loading, clipping are all beautifully covered elsewhere in the blogosphere. I only need add that an expectation of proper manners is your right as the human animal. The horse animal should always assume that the human is the leader. Period. I have my own personal space with horses, as I do with people. I'd let horses get closer, though:).

ANYway, one millionth thing I learned from GoLightly was, let the natural travel of the horse be your guide to everything you do with him/her. The mistake people make with side-reins, imo, is starting off far too tight, far too soon. And using them forever and ever and ever..

They should NEVER EVER need to be "tight". Ever. Unless a re-train is going on, and even then, "tight" would be the length needed for the horse to stand naturally, in his most comfortable, natural position, with an inch added.. By varying the length from left to right, eg. shorter left side-rein than right, you "show" them initial left lateral, or body flexion.
When starting a young horse, loose side-reins, are there just to guide, and to let the horse become accustomed to a bit in his mouth. And they only get pulled out if the horse starts to wander too much on the longe. They show the horse the channel I've blathered about.

When I first climbed onto Tad's back, I had a helper at the end of the longe. I'd already gone through steps A through Z. Tad was ready as he was ever going to be. Helper (a guy,of course) ignored my request to let Tad's head alone. Helper tightened, pulled. Tad went straight up into the air, and came down bucking. I was able to quell the explosion simply by keeping his head up. Tad wore loose side-reins a few times after that, to help him forget the fear he'd felt through the first weight on his back.

I always used loose side-reins, as in five or six inches LoNger than the horse's natural stance, for greenies on the longe. Depended on the horse's individual problem, where the SR's attached to the girth/"bitting-rig", or some variation thereof. ON THE LONGE. Tad stopped wearing them on the longe, real quick. He didn't need them for long. He had a lovely front end and a naturally balanced way of going..
Crappy feet, but oh well. Thoroughbreds and their feets. (sigh) Oh, and they are ganglier, longer, aren't they?
It shows them the way to the ground, that helps them stretch and relax their back muscles, and prepare them for your first requests for attention.

"Bitting-Rig" = a longeing surcingle with all kinds of places to hook side-reins, and a longeing cavesson, just a big old halter really, so that you can longe the horse without using his bit. Step L, I believe;)

Fern? I think it helps to have a lower natural head. Gadgets to lower it further seem counter intuitive.

People Ride in Side-Reins. That's scary as hell. IMHT.....

Oh, and right. Standing martingales are a no-no in jumpers. In Canada. We figured that out, at least. We aren't uncivilized:):):):)
Horses Need to be able to use their heads and necks, in that lovely channel, that flow that is horse movement. With SideReins on the longe, we help them to stretch and flex and RELAX, thereby working their whole body, from nose to tail.
When I'm looking at your horses, Fern?
The way you work with them? The way you YourSelf Are?

SideReins are probably not something you'd need to pullout too often. Like ever. Solid, well-balanced, sane (well, mostly). Take out a high-headed scatterbrained harse? Different story, maybe.
:)

jmo.
Don't shoot me.

To Horse People

ND_Appy's incredible horse art blog. This girl can draw, people. What an artist!

ND_Appy's Beautiful Horses and Mini(s!). Her horse care skills are obvious. Look at those happy mares. The gleaming good health of the little Blossom mini-mare NDA rescued, Blossom popped out Pistol, with no one knowing he was there.

Horse people with kind hearts are everywhere, aren't they?

Aren't they?

For North Dakota Appy. Kudos to what you do.

Callie, Phoenix, Blossom, Pistol.
Lucky horses, all.

To more luck for horses and people, too.

UNBELIEVABLY SARCASTIC!!!

PLEASE NOTE, THIS ENTIRE BLOG IS AN INSIDE JOKE BETWEEN ME AND MY DEEPLY DISTURBED FOLLOWERS! DO NOT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!!!!

My Philedelphus "Mock-Orange" is blooming!

Can You Believe THIS??? Anything could Happen!!!???

Look at That Poor Child!!! That dog could easily KILL that kid!

The worst for last. There are no words for how scary this is!!

Yes, folks, unbeknownst to me, NDAppy has been cruelly subjecting her children to untold dangers. I checked out her profile, after seeing her comment on fugs. Here's a direct quote from her. "I am going to bred Phoenix (my grade appy) to a Paint stud. I am thinking about it for a cutting baby."

OMG! A paintaloosa. *rolls eyes* Do we really need more of these horses? This woman's other horse, a paint filly, was featured on Fugs as a GOOOD example of a properly managed yearling, but then NDa came on to say she was BREEDING HER? For what? For why? For god's sakes sheeple, stop breeding your worthless horses..

I checked her blog, and discovered she also has (you'll NEVER guess) THREE Kids!
Yes, all three children will be blatantly subjected to riding these horses without a HELMET! Unreal, I tell ya. I bet they even walk around in (GASP) BARE FEET!! Oh, the horror. Those poor, poor children. (sobs into handkerchief.) Wow, I can still spell handkerchief!

Oh, and she's got a mini-horse colt, surprise! She didn't even know the mini-mare was pregnant. A blind person could have seen she was pregnant. Heck, little gator told NDa she thought the Blossom was fertilized. Little gator doesn't even OWN horses!! Yeah, just what the world needs, more miniature worthless animals. Really, people. How many horses can this planet support?

omfg, AND THE TROLL WHO SHOULD REMAIN NAMELESS IS ANXIOUSLY AWAITING HER FOAL.
Oops, I wasn't yelling. Darned caps lock. Aged Maiden Mare slipped twins, yes, for sure, breed that back. Uh, huh. Hey, fill those uteri! They are lonely! Eggs want to hatch! I wanna BABY. Excuse me while I spew.

OMgoodG, look at this quote.. "I did move on from several stallion promoters when I got attitude. Sure, mare's for all intents and purposes a random, unproven backyard mare. So what. I want the best stallion for her, and if you're giving me that elitist horse-person attitude, you can shove it. The real professionals, the ones who actually HAD something to be snooty about treated me like she was as valuable as their own broodies."

That attitude would be called "I want your stud fee", darlin'. Elitists actually care what lands on the ground. Sad, really, with all these nice horses for sale, at FernValley's for example, or kestrel's, when the foals grow up. Not sure about HP. She uses strangler reins. Elitist!!

(shakes head) Good grief. "I want the best stallion for her." Yup, if you can't get laid, get the horsie equivalent for your fugly worthless mare. All foals are so CUTE!!

I have the perfect stallion for you, NDa.

Here ya go.

The many uses of strangler reins will follow, on this same bat channel, once I finish sending photoplasmicbetamicron waves Directly at BHM, the CephaloPod's house. I need back up.

(runs, screaming, nekkid back under my rock)

EyesHaven't

Keep those baby pictures coming!


I don't think you've seen this angled shot of my fine stallion before. Look at that front end!! Oh, wait, I mean, look at what happens in never-terminal HYPP!

Poor Butch. His neck is strangled. Darned "European Balancing Reins"! Look what they did! "Strangler Reins" is more like it. Oh, wait, no, that's SideReins, no, Draw Reins.
Oh, screw it, tie their darned heads in place. (Um, no.) Keep that rider off that horse, if riding in Side-Reins is their preferred mode of (snork) "schooling".
Heck, I used Draw-reins once in a blue moon. Never for tucking their chins to their chests. Never. Okay, never after I got smart enough to know how bad that idea was. I guess right about the time I started teaching. I was 14.


Me and My Dad, in 2000. I'm not going to the Christilot Clinic. Oh, I would if I could, but I have a date with Dad.

Tangent A
I remember how sad and angry my Gammy became, as she lost her sight. Being born a staggering beautiful woman, that Gammy couldn't see her own self anymore, rankled her. Broke my poor Mom's heart, seeing her Mom shrivel and gnarl. Harder still, when Mom passed away before her own mother.
OH, was that a biggie. Emotionally speaking.

Tangent B
The eyes have it. For AofG, who sees with her other senses, more clearly than I ever will. Because while many of us do appreciate our sight, many more take it for granted. Everything is in our eyes. We place such heavy costs upon them! I'm one of the earlier models of human. Bright lights were just learning to be reallY bright. I remember this terrible strobe light that Dad used one year for Christmas Card pictures. I liked looking into shiny things. I probably stripped the backs of my rods right off. (Rods and cones are thingy dingy eye parts).

I darn near lost my finger, touching a shiny thing, three years old, it was the swing post of a car door, exposed. Door closed. Ow. Still have a twisty bird finger, thank goodness on my left hand. I was probably born leftie;)

I practiced being sightless, after reading Helen Keller's story, as a kid. Watching "The Miracle Worker" was an eye-opening experience. I'm sure that terrible joke has been done before.
But I did practice, know what I'm sayin'? On horseback, a lot.

Tangent F, for focused.
It helped me focus on rhythms and sensations as opposed to what I was looking at. Hard to do when all you want is to look at this horse you are riding. He/she is pretty:) They sound great, and of course, smell even better.

When I watch horses, I hear them as well as see them. I "feel" them moving. I can sense a lot with sounds. AofG's sensitivity must be frankly astounding.

Walking my fields with my dogs, I imagine a hundred different horses, but mostly GoLightly's sounds come to my ears.

I still have ridiculously sensitive hearing. I spook at thunder claps. I spook at lots of different things. Iamkindatensile. (I know, that you know that.)

You can hear a disaster about to happen, in the ring. Or not. I remember Ian Millar, one of the greats of all time in Canadian & World Show Jumping, crashing at the first fence at the Royal, last year? Nothing, no warning. Horse wasn't looking, or was half-asleep. Ian just shook his head. That's horses.

They have thoughts only they can fathom, and it's our job to watch and listen to them (okay, and smell them, true) and hear and touch them. Trying to understand them is the art of horsemanship. On the ground is just as important as in the saddle, or harness or whatever.

Horses are a prey animal. Looking the wild/unhandled ones, and the younger greener ones straight in the eye is a threat. To older, more experienced animals, it can be a challenge. Once you have a horse actually looking at you "soft", you are halfway there. It's one of the hardest things animals have to learn about us, our propensity for looking them right straight in their eyes.

Tangent Cassowary.
Best friend's sister works at Calgary Zoo. On one visit, I got to go "Backstage", and met all kinds of captive animals. I came eyeball to eyeball with a cassowary. They don't like it. Think big mean bird... Look 'em in the eye, they keeel you. With their talons on their hind legs. Rip your tummy right out, they will.
So, moral of this tangent? Look down, when meeting a cassowary.

Oh, GoLightly loved to have staring contests... His not quite big enough old eye. Kindest eye, honest, no-fear eye. A rare eye.

It's part of my "problem" with the term anthropomorphism. I think, if we really LooK, there are commonalities in animal behaviours, more than not. And humans, after all, are animals too.
jmo.

I'd like to eventually do a really boring review of my Tad Plaid's breaking process. I have most of it written down, I've kept all of my journals through my riding days. I know, you knew that already. Never did need draw reins on Tad. Ooops, sorry, once, yes I did use them. Strangled him. Not.

DogTalk
My dogs give good eye. It's been Blaze's toughest thing. If she feels she should be even slightly repentant, or even just because her Mom is so Darn Tall!, she cowers and looks away as she wiggles up to me, licking like the puppy she still is.
Flip just jumps in my lap;)


Her life is sooooooo hard.

To All Five Senses. If you have all five, treasure them. If you don't treasure the senses you do have, count yourself dumb.
All five can be focused, to an amazing degree.

Turn down that damn boomBox!!!! My ears ring at the sound of the city.

ssssssh. Listen. Hear that? Silence is precious.

To Quieter Times.

And to Horses.
Of courses.

Bark Bark, Bark

Blaze, cleaning her nose.


Flip, in deepest thoughts.



Do ya wanna play FrisBee? Huh? Do ya???


Blaze, always ready!

Well, now I HAVE to post something, to cheer up Blatant/Meghan.
RIP, Spock. Huge furry hugs to Meghan. One of the kindest people I've ever read, on the net.

Let's talk of happy things, and silly things, and ridiculous things today. No sad things, no down-in-the-dumps days.

We all get plenty of those. Well, I do anyway. Don't know about y'all. IF I was a rich man, la deedahdedahdah...

I'd like to thank Dena for inviting me to JR's party. Talk about a jaw-dropper comment. Jeeesh. I've been told I need to shower more, and then I'll get invited out more. Maybe I should lose the diaper...

Ooooh, I'll share my story of how ridiculous I managed to look at a horse show. A teeeny-tiny, schooling show.
I'm showing Nonchalant's half-sister, Lucky Miss. The two were unhealthily in love with each other. Ooops, wrong story.

I'm showing Lucky, I'm wearing another rider's helmet, because mare was being a brat for the rider. So great master rider (me) hops on, with a hat way too big, even for my size 7 head. It's rolling down onto my eyes. The mare's been "chipping" (throwing in a teeny little stride JUST before the fence) and I am supposed to see better distances for the poor mare. (Blaming her rider, who is very disappointed that I'm up there on her mare.) I'm sure her rider hexed me a few times;)

Soooo, I of course see a long distance. I, of course, jump ahead of the mare. Of course, she throws in a two-foot stride, and of course, oh, she has no withers. Saddles do not fit this mare. Where have withers gone?? I'm riding on her ears as Lucky Miss decides, wisely, to stop. Plop, on t'other side of the fence.
Yeah. Dirt.
This is AFTER GoLightly. He'd forgotten to mention something.

Pride ALWAYS goes before a fall. It's not just a saying. At least, every single time I've ever felt even slightly superior, bam, I trip, I fall, I whack my head on something. I ride a horse's ears over a jump. So my ego learned, very early on, to STFU. Over and over and over.

You have to park egos at the barn door. Any door for that matter. At least, it's true for me.

I was going to post about barking dogs and shouting people and wasted breath.

I'd rather hear about the silliest fall you've ever had. Not the most dangerous, not the most painful. How did the horse help you to look like an idiot?


Yup. I've done that. On Nonchalant, at a show. A much more important show. Oh, how graceful, to be a separate, flying universe, apart from your horse. Ego, and over-schooling did me in, that time. I didn't fall off, but I sure should have.
In warm-up, I was showing off for a professional I'd had a huge crush for since I was 11. He spoke to me, said something like "You look like you're having fun." Concentration? Out the window, bye-bye.

Funny thing, I refused his advances a few years later. Hate to crush those old fantasies, ya know?

My most common fall was the face-plant,fortunately at slower speeds. Jumping ahead, ya know? Trying to help the horse over the fence. As IF.

If the horse doesn't leave the ground, voila! Face>ground. My first horse gracefully threw me over a low brush fence once. I was wearing a nice sweater, and Manfred (the BO & Head Teacher, and my boss) complimented me.

Doesn't take much to take your mind off your horse. But your horse always has you on his mind. Well, his back:)

My first (rental) ride ever, big old Belgian cross Mike ran back to the barn with me. That's pretty embarrassing when you think you are a genius with horses at the age of 11. Oh, how quickly they explain your shortcomings!

GoLightly and I never parted company. Over fences, on the flat, I never felt as if ground could be part of my day, that day. Nice feeling, let me tell ya. Over fences, he'd leave the ground from anywhere you said. If you were wrong, he'd still leave, and let you know what you'd done wrong.

It was hard learning to find deeper distances, from my years of galloping and leaving out that last stride before the fence. Many horses I'd ridden previously couldn't have left so close to the fence, or they'd have flipped over. Yeah, those falls almost always hurt. But ride a horse with an adjustable stride, and a catty front end!!
Oooooh, yeah..

I have plenty of those stories. C'mon, 'fess up!

I gotta go. Be right back.

To Spock's too-short, well-loved life, with thanks, because he was lucky enough to find Meghan.