My Evile Twin came to visit this past weekend, up from the Big City. She's a horse-lover like myself, and used to ride back in the day. I'd actually taken her on an "interesting" trail ride a couple of years ago with Leo the Bucking QH as her steed. Though he hadn't begun the bucking thing back then.
I promised her a better mount this time around, and we headed out to the barn on a lovely Friday morning. It was SO peaceful out there; school's in session, so no kids at all (yaay!), all the adults were at work, except Carlos the Spaniard who showed up around noon to do some work around the place. It felt like my own personal barn!
We got good ole' Colby the QH who was up by the front gate and tucked him into an empty stall with a bit of grain for a treat, and then hiked the 2/3 mile or so into the pasture to get Quzqo. By the time we returned, Colby had finished, had peed and pooped and was ready for whatever else we had in store!
Got him tacked up, I let Suzanne, my twin (not really, we just look similar in a vague sort of way) borrow my bitless bridle, and got her on board the horse and warming up in the indoor arena. Once I got Quzqo tacked up, she was ready to go!
Last time we left the property and headed for the Shore-to-Shore trail (didn't make it due to Leo's misbehavior). This time we stayed closer in, and originally were just going to ride along the property line outside the pasture fences. But Colby and Suzanne were doing so well, I figured we should push the envelope, and headed for the woods!
We didn't get into the actual trees before something went "snap" in the forest, and Quzqo jammed on the brakes, ducked and did a 180 degree spin (but I stayed on) and bolt! Colby also spooked and spun, but much more sedately, and hey, Suzanne stayed on as well! Yay Us! Don't have a clue what made the scary snapping noise in the woods, could have been anything, and I managed to get Quzqo to actually walk on.
I haven't been in these woods since last year. There's new people living in the house behind the barn property, and they like their ATVs. It was apparent they also liked the woods (not their property either) because there were now some wonderful cleared trails smashed through the rotting tree tops left over from logging done years ago! Awesome! It was quite pretty in there (when have I ever said "Oh, it was so frickin' fugly in those woods!"), and we did a little bit of brush-poppin' where the trails had become overgrown with blackberry brambles. Quzqo still managed to snatch a mouthful of blackberry leaves or maple branches as we went.
Other than the one spook-fit, it was pretty uneventful. Suzanne had the joys of learning to ride a remote controlled push-button trained-to-the-gills Showhorse who'd almost work off of brain waves, he was so responsive. It took a bit to figure out why he'd suddenly take off trotting... seems a little lean forward was all it took!
The horses were spoiled with Fuji apples and plenty of grooming before being released from their bondage. Rough life, but somebody's got to live it!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment