Post by appytrails on Oct 21, 2013 10:34:34 GMT -5
I know I can tell you all this story and you will all "get it".
Went on a trail ride yesterday that some friends have every year. I only have two horses and my daughter and grand-daughter both really wanted to go too. My friends have several horses and offered to loan me one of theirs so we could all come. Since I "sort of" know all of their horses, I thought it was a great idea. Yeah, right.
First horse, absolutely threw a hissy fit when I got on her. Laid her ears back, started backing in fast circles, bucking, and generally being uncooperative. Every time I urged her forward, same thing all over. Owner's daughter lunged her, rode her a little, acted up for her but would at least go forward. Tried again, same thing. Okay, so daughter (she's in her 20's) traded horses with me.
Got on new horse, went forward, turned, stopped with no problems. So figured we were good to go. Started off, went by some scary farm equipment but just minimal reaction, little sidestepping and snorting but no big deal. Then we came to the creek, he's been through it many times before. Refused, tried to climb the steep bank. One of the other riders ponied us through but he was trying to ride the other horse's butt the whole time through. He settled down after getting through the creek and we rode on nice open trail for about 10 minutes when he decided he wanted to continue on two feet. No warning or anything, no other horses crowding him, nothing jumped out of the grass, just straight up. Thought for sure we were going over. We didn't, and I stayed in the saddle. Yeah for me About 20 minutes later, he tried it again but only did about a half rear.Mind you, this is was a 4 hour ride and we were only about an hour into it.
After the half rear, things went better even though he fought me every time I tried to slow him down going up or down a hill. No other big issues until towards the end of the ride, pheasant flew off in front of him and he did a big spook, lost a stirrup but stayed on. That I can understand. He was all wound up after that and pranced and danced the rest of the ride. Got to the end of the ride where we had to cross a narrow pathway with culverts on both side and he initially refused and we ended going over it sideways.
Moral of this story, if you're going to borrow someone's else horses, go ride them prior to the day you're suppose to use them AND never take for granted that your friends, no matter how much you love them, really make sure their horses are safe for someone else to ride even though they are an experienced rider. If my daughter or grand-daughter would have been riding either of those horses, we'd have been spending time in an emergency room.
BTW: The first horse that I tried and the daughter took over, acted up most of the ride too. Daughter told me during the ride, oh yeah, well she doesn't really like anyone and it took 5 years of her dumping me periodically for us to reach an understanding.
Went on a trail ride yesterday that some friends have every year. I only have two horses and my daughter and grand-daughter both really wanted to go too. My friends have several horses and offered to loan me one of theirs so we could all come. Since I "sort of" know all of their horses, I thought it was a great idea. Yeah, right.
First horse, absolutely threw a hissy fit when I got on her. Laid her ears back, started backing in fast circles, bucking, and generally being uncooperative. Every time I urged her forward, same thing all over. Owner's daughter lunged her, rode her a little, acted up for her but would at least go forward. Tried again, same thing. Okay, so daughter (she's in her 20's) traded horses with me.
Got on new horse, went forward, turned, stopped with no problems. So figured we were good to go. Started off, went by some scary farm equipment but just minimal reaction, little sidestepping and snorting but no big deal. Then we came to the creek, he's been through it many times before. Refused, tried to climb the steep bank. One of the other riders ponied us through but he was trying to ride the other horse's butt the whole time through. He settled down after getting through the creek and we rode on nice open trail for about 10 minutes when he decided he wanted to continue on two feet. No warning or anything, no other horses crowding him, nothing jumped out of the grass, just straight up. Thought for sure we were going over. We didn't, and I stayed in the saddle. Yeah for me About 20 minutes later, he tried it again but only did about a half rear.Mind you, this is was a 4 hour ride and we were only about an hour into it.
After the half rear, things went better even though he fought me every time I tried to slow him down going up or down a hill. No other big issues until towards the end of the ride, pheasant flew off in front of him and he did a big spook, lost a stirrup but stayed on. That I can understand. He was all wound up after that and pranced and danced the rest of the ride. Got to the end of the ride where we had to cross a narrow pathway with culverts on both side and he initially refused and we ended going over it sideways.
Moral of this story, if you're going to borrow someone's else horses, go ride them prior to the day you're suppose to use them AND never take for granted that your friends, no matter how much you love them, really make sure their horses are safe for someone else to ride even though they are an experienced rider. If my daughter or grand-daughter would have been riding either of those horses, we'd have been spending time in an emergency room.
BTW: The first horse that I tried and the daughter took over, acted up most of the ride too. Daughter told me during the ride, oh yeah, well she doesn't really like anyone and it took 5 years of her dumping me periodically for us to reach an understanding.