I gotten notice that my barn owner was going to ride on Saturday and she wanted to know if I wanted to go with her. She told me this on Friday... I scrambled to find childcare for Lucille so I could go. My regular weekday sitter agreed to watch her for me for a few hours on Saturday. Bless that woman's heart.
I arrived at the barn at around 10:30 after stopping to get fly spray for the barn. ( I usually buy 1-3 bottles a year that are shared. I use the barn owners when I run out) Memphis and her new horse were still up in the stalls while everyone else was turned out. I took in a good long look of all the other horses out in the field just blissfully eating; they all looked so peaceful just eating and every now and again swishing off flies.
Memphis was still eating his hay; the barn owner had fed him alfalfa this morning since he was going to do some serious work today. He was surprisingly calm for being still stuck in a stall, but I gather part of that was due to the hay in front of him and the fact he has had sooo much good turn out lately. Pulled him out of the stall about the same time the barn owner showed up and pulled her horse out. She made small talk while we groomed out horses, here and there removing any hard spots of dirt that would possible rub while riding. She went on telling me how she groomed Memphis the other day for me and how beat up her horse was. Her horse was a brand new acquisition and he had quite a few battle scars in his short 5 years of life. He was also the lowest horse on the totem pole in the barn, so he was getting beat up still but wasn't too bad off. Just a few nicks here and there, but it was all small and superficial.
I switched the curb strap onto my one ear bridle with a larger bit on it and then removed the roper reins and replaced them with a set of leather six foot split reins. I love the smell of the leather in my hands and the reins are soft from all the coconut oil I've rubbed into them over the years. Split reins are my favorite to ride with on trails as I feel they give me the best of all worlds as far as reins go, but I can see why some people don't like them. Memphis stands and takes a deep breath as we watches me hang the reins and bridle on the stall door next to him. He knows what is about to happen.
I grab the saddle blanket and toss it on up. Fiddling with it for too long, unhappy with its placement. Eventually, I give up and decide that it is where it is going to be. I grab the saddle pad and as always when Memphis knows he is about to go on a long ride, he swings wide over to the stall wall stretching out his lead rope to the end. I walk around him with the pad and give him a smack on the butt while sternly telling him "OVER". He quickly sidepasses, why he can't ever do that under saddle, and I place the pad.
Picking up the saddle and making sure the latigo is not bunched up under the saddle, I gently place it on his back and check its placement. I fiddle with the pad and saddle while he chews on his lead rope. I attach his girth to the billet and then walk around to the other side and get him cinched up. Start to put his bridle on and woops, I put the curb strap on too tight. Takes me 5 minutes to get it all readjusted correctly. We are now ready to go! Find my pink bucket to mount with and up I go.
We decided not to trailer the horses anywhere but walk them to the trails. Its a 30 minute ride there on the roadways but its totally worth it. Memphis did a small spook at a loud truck and was really untrusting of some people cutting limbs but other than that it was an uneventful ride to the part.
Once on the trails Memphis did what he does best, be a AWESOME trail horse. The trail system is being reworked so we had to kinda wing it. We spent a total of 3 hours in the woods. I got some really good gaiting out of Memphis but I did hold him back somewhat. The new trails are CURVY with sheer dropoffs so I was a little nervous about really opening him up. He wanted to go go go but I didn't know the trails well enough to feel comfortable with that.
Near the end I was finally able to relax and drop the reins on the horn of the saddle. Memphis and I started to meld into one unit and he was listening to me without much guidance with the reins. That is what I was waiting for the entire time. I don't know if he was so tired that he just gave into me (probably it) or if we finally started to click, but I truly loved the last 2 hours of that ride.
When we got back to the barn I let him go out in the pasture with a sweaty back. He ran over to his friends, drank some water, and happily rolled in the dirt. I knew he'd roll, but I didn't care. He earned it. I really do love this horse.
Thanks Memphis.
No comments:
Post a Comment