Pewp!

After the horse show, both Quzqo and I were sort of sick of each other, and I gave him a bit of a vacation. We had a couple of relaxing, pleasant (except for the bugs) trail rides, and found some new routes to take, and discovered that you can't lead a balky Arabian through ankle-deep sucking swamp mud without losing your $90 riding sneaker in the quagmire (I did get it back though), and spent some time working on his headset, which he IS getting, so he no longer goes along like a nearsighted anteater with his nose sticking way out front.

I took a week-long vacation to Kentucky, so he got 10 days' vacation, and by the time I got back, he was glad to see me, and I was glad to see him, and now we're back on track.

My niece and niece-in-law came out to the barn this past Sunday with a passel of chill'un to visit the horsie and do pony rides and cart rides. We drafted Colby the Quarter Horse to handle the riding, and I'd lunged Himself before they arrived so he'd be half-civilized for the cart-pulling.

The nieces arrived with three girls and two boys, between the ages of 4 and 10. We hiked out into the pasture to catch Colby.... Quzqo was already in his stall, inhaling his dinner I noticed... never mind it was noon... if it's there, it will be eaten!

As we negotiated the countless heaps of mummified meadow muffins, the youngest girl kept shouting out warnings! "PEWP!" "PEWP!" "Look out for the PEWP!" We were laughing, and from that point forward, any and all references to manure was "Pewp!" It's always great to have a new word to add to the vocabulary!

Colby was brought in, brushed and saddled, once he was busy giving rides, the oldest girl helped me harness Quzqo, and we got him hitched to the cart without problems. Happily it seems he remembered his lessons earlier this year in "standing quietly until asked to move forward". THAT is a big relief!

My plan was to load the cart up with a couple of kids, then take the horse about 1/2 mile down the main road, and back again...that'll be more interesting than walking around in the arena. I took two of the smallest girls first trip out, and even though Quz hadn't been in harness since the horse show, he did VERY well! I warned the kids about no shouting or screaming, to hang on, and keep their feet in the cart. They let out a few excited squeals during the ride, especially when we were trotting, but that didn't bother the horse one bit. He did perfect!

We returned to the barn, and loaded up the two boys (both 4 years old). The youngest girl admonished them "no screaming!" which caused my niece to raise her eyebrows a bit. Hey, it's good advice!

The boys were having a time of their life, and we got to trotting down the roadside at a good clip. One of the boys let out a loud "WhoaHO!", which Quzqo mistook for "WHOA" and he jammed on the brakes on his own, ha! I told them sternly "no yelling!"... last thing I need is for some kid to holler out "HAW!" and have the horse cut to the left (into the lane of traffic!)

It wasn't just fun-time-horsey-rides though, I was working on Quzqo and those "issues" we had about standing quietly, especially at intersections. We stopped at the intersection with the lilac bushes, and he did put up a little hissy, but a pretty feeble hissy, and eventually stood quietly until I told him to "walk".

On the way back to the barn (the boys were VERY concerned that we were actually leaving the barn...they kept track of how far away we were...and were very concerned when they couldn't see it any more...until we cleared the shrubbery that blocked their view) they began to jabber quietly to themselves (I'm sorry, I'm not fluent in pre-schooler)...the one boy began singing softly to himself, mostly to hear his voice go up and down with the jouncing of the cart at the trot, LOL. Cute.

Dumped that load of kids and loaded up the oldest girl and one of the younger ones sneaking a second ride. All went well until I saw something large and white approaching us from the other direction. I thought it was a truck pulling a utility trailer, nothing to worry about. Er...no, it's not just a truck, it's an 18-wheeler hauling a big flatbed full of cherry containers (cherry harvest is in full bore up here). Quzqo slowed...I could see him tensing up...gathering himself up.... raising his head up....the truck approached...the driver DID slow down (bless his heart), but the massive whiteness of it all was too much, and as the truck passed us, the horse bolted forward and to the right towards the (shallow, thank God) ditch! I got him stopped and up on the road again, the girls, of course, thought it was fun as could be. Couldn't fault the horse, I don't believe he's ever seen an 18-wheeler while in harness (and there's a good reason I've tried to avoid that). WHY there's commercial trucking going on on a late Sunday afternoon, well...

When we got back to the barn I gave the oldest girl some lessons on driving, and we went into the indoor arena and I let her have the reins! She was THRILLED to death, and after once around I could tell she was getting the hang of it, the horse was totally bored, so I got out of the cart and let her drive by herself. She loaded up with two other siblings and away they went, walking around in the indoor arena! TOO cute! Colby the QH was giving pony rides to the one 4 year old boy, who was riding all by himself like a big boy (Colby is THE best baby-sitter horse there is....and little Joey was wearing a helmet, for the record). Eventually Colby decided he'd prefer to follow Quzqo around the arena...it was the cutest thing ever, I wish I'd brought a camera!

Eventually all the kids and adults were horsed-out, I can sincerely say that was the most fun I've ever had with all the kids out there. The weather was dry and perfect, nobody got hurt, nobody cried, nobody wet their pants. It doesn't get much better than that!