IT'S GONNA EAT MEEEE!!!

Haven't been riding Quzqo too much lately. I found out a couple of weeks ago that the farrier never trimmed him back in July because he was being such a stinker, he couldn't get anything done, so he just didn't bother to do more than trim the hind soles. Would have been nice if someone told me, instead I just assumed the farrier did a helluva bad job and wondered WTF?

So Quzqo's feet have been growing, nicely protected by his shoes, and now they're as long as a Park Horse's hooves...I'm almost ashamed to have such long feet on him, he looks downright neglected! It also showed me how nicely he kept his hooves worn down without shoes, since he went 12 weeks last summer without a trim due to his knee injury, and they never looked as long as now! And as an added bonus, his left front shoe is loose, clanking when he walks, and easily wiggled! He's been tripping like a drunkard, and if I trotted him, I could hear his hind feet clipping his forefeet.

The farrier's due to work on horses either this coming Friday or Monday, either way I'll take time off from work so I can be there to hold him, and see if I can help out if Quz turns stinker again. He can be hell on wheels when he gets "a mood", and my farrier isn't that patient a fellow, I can imagine the fireworks that might have transpired. He's probably more used to mellow stock horses, not little drama queens. (course he's been trimming Quz for the past 5 years, so don't know what changed!)

ANYway, tonight I felt like a ride anyway, and figured if we just kept it to a walk on the property, it won't be bad for the feet. The horse seemed in a pretty good mood, he'd had his grain and was into his evening hay, I didn't have too much trouble prying his face away from that first cutting goodness!

Tacked up and off we went, should have noticed the warning signs when he was walking tensly like a coiled spring just around the outside of the barn. We made it through the Creaking Gates of Doom (the scene of our big spook-fit on our very first trail ride together back in '04!), up along the fence line by the woods. The evening was cool, but the crickets were noisy, the sunlight golden, just a beautiful, peaceful evening!

We came along the back end of the property, to a steep hill to go down. Quzqo planted his feet and refused to go one step further. His head came up, his ears pricked forward, he snorted, staring at SOMETHING.

The neighbor was working on a run-in shed for his horses, probably 1/4 mile away. I assumed that was what he was seeing. I cued him forward...nope, not moving. He managed a wobbly side-ways step before spinning 180 back the way we came. I spun him right back the way we were facing. He planted his feet, staring... though I noticed he wasn't exactly staring at the neighbor, but rather, straight ahead!

Don't know exactly how long we had our "discussion" on how to proceed, which pretty much boiled down to "Move Forward!" and "Hell NO!"...wash, rinse, repeat.

He'd start backing up..okay, you want to back up, back up! I'd keep him backing up for maybe 10-20 steps, then cue him forward, which he'd do unhappily, get just so far, then plant the feet! Again we'd have our discussion, again he'd either spin around, or start backing. If he started backing, I kept him backing, then move him forward. Each time I moved him forward I DID get him a few feet or inches further down the trail until he'd plant his feet and stare at the horror in front of him!

As far as I could determine, the horror with the horse-blood-dripping fangs and yellow staring eyes that he saw was...a couple of dead tree branches on the other side of the hot wire, on the ground, in HIS pasture! Those branches have been there for months, we've gone past them countless times without incident (of course there's also been times there's been huge Drama Queen blowups about it).

After one more back-the-horse-up-practically-back-to-the-barn incident, and the horse stood rooted to the ground, staring at the branches about 50 feet ahead of us down the hill, and imagining what the neighbor was thinking (probably smug about owning Quarter Horses and thinking unkind thoughts about Arabians)...I seriously considered turning him around, riding all the way back to the barn (over a mile), go past the barn and up the other side of the property, and approach the Sticks Of Doom from the other direction. I cued Quz for a walk, and imagine my surprise when he walked forward and began down the hill!!

We edged as far from the Branches Of Death as we could, with the neighbor's electric fence on our left... I could feel Quzqo's heartbeat through the leather of the saddle fenders, it was pounding in his ribcage so hard! It was like riding a stick of dynomite, coiled so tightly I was seriously afraid he was going to explode then and there!

We made it past the Sticks From Hell and marched further down the hill...when we got to the bottom, I made my usual mistake. I said, out loud, something to the effect of "See? Just when I don't expect it, you can be goo-" and he BUCK-BOLTED like a bat outta hell from some unseen horror, perhaps he saw the Death Twigs behind him!

But, it IS Quzqo, and he only got a few yards before I slowed him back to a walk, laughing, and imagining what the neighbor might have been thinking (nothing good!).

The walk back to the barn was a series of twitchy-in-place-spooks and side-stepping at bobbing Queen Anne's Lace blossoms or frightening clover blossoms. A pair of Sand Hill Cranes were in the adjoining field and began squawking at us, which produced more lovely side-passing into the neighboring hayfield. The huge birds took flight, heading straight for us, but thankfully turned to the West and went away!

Made it back in one piece, once in the barn Quzqo let out a huge sigh and began yawning. Another near-death experience, dodging the Grim Horse Reaper yet again!