Thanksgiving Rides

One of my best friends came up on Tuesday before Thanksgiving to take my daughter to Oklahoma. Her youngest daughter got SICK (yuck) during the night so instead of Oklahoma, they hung out at our house until little girl felt better then went home. The older daughter and I went for a ride on our horses. We have ridden together before. She has a paint gelding that she has trained (She's 15 and amazing) to be a true western pleasure horse. Then of course there's my Arab speed walker/crazy mare. My kid was going to go on the old mare that we used to have that came to visit us for the day. She managed to find her out when the stirrup broke.

So the older girl and I left the house down the dirt road. We crossed a wooden bridge and about in the middle of the bridge, a bird flew out from under the bridge. My horse went about a foot sideways before settling down again. We decided to go to a friend's house that is just past the end of my road on the local highway. Between my road and the friends house, we found a lonely horse we thought was going to jump the fence to be with us, so we crossed to the other side of the hwy and continued on. Well, the friend was not home and it was time for my husband to start home so we turned around to head back.

The problems started. My mare already walks fast. On the way home she wants to run. She also forgets to listen to my "whoa" and "easy" commands. I have to one-reign stop her to get her to stop. I asked my riding partner if we could go a different route home to confuse the mare, and she agreed. This route goes all the way to the end of the local highway to a major highway. The major highway has half the road shut down for construction and would be safe to ride on. So here we go. We trot/walk to the dirt road turn off, with me getting off her back before she turns stupid. Then, she struggles for a while to figure out what I mean by not going home. I get back on the girl and she still wants to run out of my stops. We went for about a mile before I found a pasture to teach her that I really mean for her to stop. At the end of the pasture, there was a horse and very vocal dog. We skipped back to the other side of the higway only to find 2 more horses. Here's where my horse acts right and the gelding turns stupid. He forgot that he's NOT a stud. She had to remind him and then we were off again. There weren't any more crazy incidences, just silly, after that.

We got on the new section of the main highway and continued to head home. My horse all the while is looking at those orange barrels like they might attack her. There was a pile of asphalt rock left on the side of the road that was also very menacing. Both horses walked past it with their eye focused completely on that pile.

Of course for most of the trip, my speed walker was in front. I would stop her and wait for the other horse to catch up, then continue. On the highway, I actually turned her around, went behind the other horse and looped back. Both horses thought the world was going to end because the gelding was in front.

All in all, a 3 hour ride that was very exciting, fun, and educational.

I did not ride this Sunday, due to the need to get the prodigal daughter.