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When controlling one animal with only voice commands, and controlling another with all the aides of voice, hands, legs, and body, it's both frustrating as hell, and somehow amusing, when the former responds better than the latter. 2
This was the situation I found myself in when I decided to go for an evening ride on my quarter horse gelding, Levi, and my dog, Chloe. Being the type of person I am, and seeing how Levi was an absolute angel when I had taken him out a day or two ago, I decided to ride him without a saddle...bareback. Either because I was too lazy to put on a saddle, or because I ride my other horse bareback all the time, I put the bridle over Levi's head and jumped on him. 3
I could feel the energy in the big chestnut gelding. His walk was more of a prance, with enough spring in his step to suspend his body in midair between strides. He was raring to go, that's for sure. It's a good feeling to know you have so much horse under you. Levi's long legs just eat up the ground, and for the first portion of the trail, a rugged series of ravines, gullies, and rock bluffs, things are going smoothly, Levi knows the way and all I have to do is hold on and let him go. 4
Normally, with Levi, he rushes about like his tail's on fire for the first hour or so of a ride, and then he settles right down, but this time, that didn't happen. If anything he got more and more strung out as the ride went on. Pretty soon he was crab-stepping, his whole body moving sideways down the trail. Okay, no big deal, I can stay on, a horse's mane was made for holding onto when the ride gets sketchy...well, yeah, and for keeping flies off it's neck, but for my purposes, it's a hand-hold.5
We ride into the gravel pit, and I can hear the whine of two stroke dirt bike engines, there are about 3 of them tearing up the sand in the main pit. So, even though my horse has no problem with AT V's, dirt bikes, and the like, those wild strawberries down there on the ground are looking mighty tempting.6
So I slide down off Levi's spotted red back, and we start our separate quests...mine for the gleaming little red berries tucked away beneath red and green leaves, and his for the sparse grass that grows in patches on the ground. We work well, he's careful not to step on me or push me over, and I make sure to give him enough slack in the reins so he can get to his grass. Levi's not a mean horse, if he were mean, he'd be lashing out at me and making life difficult while I was on the ground. No, Levi just has more energy than he, or I at times, knows what to do with.7
No the bikers have left, and the sky is starting to turn shades of pink and gold, serving as my warning to get on home. Rather than turn back and go home the way I came, I take another trail from the gravel pit. This is a trail that is well known to me, but to Levi, not so much. With Levi being in a almost hallucinogenic state, due to his pent up energy and the encroaching darkness, everything is a good reason to kick up a fuss. He's prancing, pawing, fighting the bridle, rearing on occasion, and I'm making damned good use of all my riding ability, as well as that mane.8
This normally short trail seems to take forever, I have to spend so much time either backing Levi, or pulling him around in circles, when he charges into the bridle and fights my hands on the reins, or rears and balks, more for the fun of it than because of the unknown critters hiding in the bush. Now he's getting frustrated, and so am I, and naturally his antics escalate, and I'm wondering if I'm good enough to stick to my horse. A steep uphill climb signifies that we're near the end of the trail, and Levi takes the bit in his teeth and bounds up this steep incline like some hell bent kangaroo, dodging trees and stumps and finally stopping at the gate. I climb off to open the barbed wire gate, and this time it's a little challenging to climb onto Levi's 15.3 hand back, it seems like in the short time it took to lead him through the gate, close it, and climb back onto him, he's grown to be at least 18 hands, or more. Somehow I manage to make the ascent, which feels like no small feat, like climbing Everest, and turn my wild war-pony towards home. But wait, there's now a sharp downhill climb that must be made. Instead of the nice, sedate, tucking his rear quarters under himself and sliding down the hill, Levi takes it at full stride, doing this weird half rearing/jumping motion, and I'm stuck clinging to his mane, feeling more like I'm riding a ship in the middle of a full blown storm than a horse. At the bottom of the hill, he goes ripping across the cull De sac at the end of the road, and I discover myself no longer sitting on his back, but up on his shoulders. The important thing is, I'm still on the horse. Now there are three women standing on the side of the road in the grass, watching their children play nearby. Somehow, after seeing Levi's attempted flight down the hillside and me looking like a rodeo bronc rider, my dirty felt hat nearly knocked off my head, I don't think they'll be too enthusiastic about letting their kids pet the "nice horsie".9
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Author notes
Well, what can I say? I love my young horse, he makes life interesting!
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Comments
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Awe sounds like a great adventure lol and im sure the kids would have wanted to pet the nice horsie even more :-p but damn is that horse growing up fast? he didnt seem to listen all that well when i was there
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