Love Those Near-Death Experiences

What a way to spend Mother's Day...almost joining her in the frickin'afterlife!!!!

Today was special because today my neighbor lady came to the barn with me, and we took Quzqo for a drive! Fun! And a good workout for Fat Boy, hauling both of us over hill and dale, ha ha!

He was good until I started harnessing him, then he started to get all "Let's go let's go let's go let's GOOOOO!" pawing the concrete, flinging his head, trying to walk off until he hit the end of the cross-ties, then pawing and flinging the head, fuss fuss wiggle wiggle!

I knew there'd be NO help from my neighbor, who wants nothing to do with horses, she wouldn't even give him a treat, and kept herself a good 10' away at all times (so he won't kick her or bite her).

Being Mother's Day, there was also a big Mother's Day shindig up at the barn owner's house, with his three daughters and THEIR families/hubbies/kids running around, and they were hauling horses in from the field for pony/horsie rides.

Got Quzqo hitched up and sent my neighbor ahead to open the door and to stay out of the way. He was as good as gold once he was on the move, and stood quietly for me to get into the cart, and for her to get in as well. I felt the cart tip back and the shafts go up, LOL...not quite balanced for that big a load. Now my neighbor isn't a hefty gal, but still the weight had essentially doubled.

Didn't bother Quz, we stepped right off when I told him to, and eagerly strutted towards the road. Once we got on the road we trotted off and he did so prissily, not really wanting to leave the barn, but wanting to GOGOGO...sort of torn between the two appealing alternatives.

He gamely hauled us up the lonnnnggggg 1/2 mile hill, the woods are GORGEOUS, just full of trilliums and dogtooth violets and spring beauties, the trees leafing out in that baby green that only springtime is allowed to use. More trotting 'til we got to the end of the dirt road. my neighbor got out of the cart to retrieve a beer can for me (ha, I knew there was a good reason to bring her along), and while we were waiting, I phoned up our mutual friend who lives one road over, and see if she'd like us to drop by! She sure did, as her husband was visting for a week from MN, plus her sister and her husband were visiting. Full house!

We got to their house about 20 minutes later, and Quz was again regaled with carrots (no maple sugar this time) and nose-pats and adoring noises from everyone who were suitably impressed. We then gave cart rides to everyone but the sister, who didn't want anything to do with the horse except to look at him from a safe distance.

Gave the friend a ride up and down the road, then her husband, then her brother-in-law, they were all impressed. While we were yakking in the driveway, a mini van slowed to a stop and the woman asked me all sorts of questions about Quz and driving, where'd I get the cart, the harness, etc, and turns out she's training their 3 yr old filly to drive, and was very interested. I have NO idea who she was, never saw her before, but that was kind of cool!

After a while it got time to be heading back, so my neighbor got back in the cart, got Quzqo turned around, and he KNEW darned well he was heading back to the barn. He'd had enough of pony cart rides, he was heading HOME to his grain bucket by God!

Well, he took off at a fast walk, I barely was able to get him to a stop at the intersection. Truth be told, my neighbor was blabbing so damned much I couldn't hear the cars coming...but we got a break in the traffic and turned south towards the barn.

We were doing fine, Quzqo was happy, my neighbor was blabbing away...suddenly I hear something go thunk-thunk behind us...quick glance...there goes my neighbor's water bottle, rolling away, it'd fallen out of her pocket. I asked her if she wanted it, she said of course (it was just a water bottle, not a store-bought fancy one!). So I stopped the horse, and just as she had one foot on the pavement and the other in
the cart, the horse starts walking off.

Now the lady has a bum knee, and couldn't get moving fast enough, I'm afraid I hauled on the reins a little hard to stop Quz...she got free of the cart, and Quzqo started to freak...he wanted to GO HOME NOT STOP, and his butt went down, and started to BACK UP! NOT GOOD! I slapped the reins on his butt and he backed up more, at an angle, and the cart started slipping down into the ditch!!! I got him back up on the shoulder, and quickly got out of the cart (EZ Entry...EZ Bailout!!) and went up to his head to calm him down. My neighbor got her (damned) water bottle and stood behind the cart, not knowing what to do.

Quzqo(sort of) calmed down, traffic cleared...I walked back to the cart and got in...IMMEDIATELY he crouched down and started BACKING UP again! NOO! He lunged forward and took a left straight into the middle of the road, backing zig-zags on the centerline...cars were coming, the ones in the northbound lane stopped a good 100 feet away. The horse started backing up...I slapped reins on his butt, somehow I had dropped the whip, and the more I hit him on the butt and was yelling "WALK! WALK" the further back he went. The cart went entirely into the ditch, and the horse followed, somehow turning so that the cart was at a 45 degree angle SIDEWAYS and the horse this ---><---- close to exploding into a full-flung freakout.  I'll admit here and now...I was scared shitless! Hello, Worst Nightmare, table for one! Quzqo luckily froze in place, his legs all bunched up underneath him like one of those Chinese horse statues, I managed to get out of the cart and up onto the shoulder above Coos. Slowly and carefully I led him forward and up the ditch bank back onto the shoulder. My neighbor was acting as Traffic Cop, halting the traffic coming up behind us.  We stood on the roadside for a few minutes, Quz was nuzzling my arm and lipping at my sleeve, like he wanted reassurance that it'd be okay. I kept rubbing his head and petting his neck as the cars whizzed past.   I ended up leading him a fair distance down the road to a private dirt road, then down that a bit until we were far enough from the paved road. Only then did I get in, then my neighbor. He was fine this time, moved forward willingly, got a little silly towards the intersection, so I turned him in a tight circle before going on. We got back on the paved road, and got him trotting. He FLEW down that road like a harness racer, only one goal; to go back to the barn!! He covered that mile or so in less than 10 minutes easily!  All my neighbor could say was "Well, that was exciting!" Yeah, easy for her as she was safely standing up on the shoulder of the road!!  Hadda LOL, as I lead Quz into the barn after unhitching him outside...he was dragggging and yawning, and the barn owner says "he's sure slowed down from when you left!" Yeah, I'd say!   Can't really blame him, I told my neighbor next time I'll BUY her a new bottle of water, she ain't ever getting out of the cart on the road heading home again! There's a reason the driving pros say NEVER get out of the cart until you're back at the barn and finished.   I'm still a little shaken up, a combination of fear, insecurity, and yes, embarassment. I'm thankful the worst didn't happen but for a few split seconds as the cart was teetering as the horse slid down the embankment....  Poor boy gave himself a couple of lacerations on the insides of his front fetlocks. I have to find his splint boots.   But as I like to say, any excursion that doesn't end with a call to 9-11 is a good one, and we left him tucked into his stall with his face in a bucket of bran mash (with apples and carrots this time), and to celebrate our surviving another day, stopped for ice cream on the way home.   Don't know if my neighbor will ever want to do that again...wouldn't blame her if she didn't.