Ghost riders in the sky
It was suggested to me that I'm not posting enough "adventures"...so here you go. A brief transcript of my last three riding quests.
Went out with one of Mel's rides last week, and she let me ride Rose. I'm starting to think that perhaps it's not a gift she's granting me because she likes me, but a task she's giving me...because she likes me. She says over and over again that "I only let the best riders ride Rose" so it's a gift in the end. I like the crazy mare.
Anyway--rode Buffalo Draw, which I had never seen. It's a dried riverbed canyon, where Bayard's buffalo used to escape (back in the day when they kept buffalo.) Mel took us on an extra loop for some scenery, and at the top of the precipice we could see right down the Wind River all the way to the Thunderhead Ranch, as well as the BLM galloping plains in front of the ranch. It was a lovely view and dramatic climb. Rose did one of her lovely little sideways-run squeal acts again when Mel turned around and said "We're going to have a fast canter here..." which in Mel-speak means "Hold on to your horses because I'm going to gallop crazily up this mountain like a madwoman." Excellent.
The next day, she told me that Arizona needed some riding with "a good rider to set him straight" because he had been "bucking" with guests. In guest-speak this means crow-hopping exuberantly. They're horses. They feel good sometimes.
Nonetheless, he was a well-behaved gentleman--he's a beautiful bay paint with one blue eye and a sweet disposition. He's a good traveler--smooth gaits and a big ground-covering walk. He listened to me quite well and took some lovely slow lopes, letting me give Ruby in front of me plenty of space. Mandy was leading our ride to Lightning Tree, which we reached just as another thunderstorm was rolling in. Since it was quite obvious by our surroundings that lightning did indeed strike this place often, we headed off the mountain rather quickly.
Then we did the Roller Coaster. Arizona got so excited that he put his head down and hopped--nothing too intimidating, but I held his head to keep it from turning into something so exuberant that I would fly over his head. Instead, he braced on the bit that I was holding and sort of leapt up the Coaster in a series of jumps. For a moment I thought we were going to go right over the edge, but fortunately he chose that moment to look up, see where he was going, and make the turn. Other than that, a lovely ride.
On Friday, Mel had a bunch of staff go out together to ride some horses just coming back from lameness to check their soundness. I rode Longonot (a close relative of Astronaut and Cosmonaut...just kidding...) who is a lovely bay Arab gelding with a longstanding trauma to the knee. He was quite clean and sound, and fun to ride (if a little duller than what I like...still a lovely boy.) Kerry also rode, on Longonot's full brother, along with Eliza, Amy (on Geoff, the Icelandic pony), Alex, Emma, Tracy, and Mandy. We basically rode around the Bench for a while, trotted the horses out for Tracy to see, cantered a bit for soundness, and then wandered around aimlessly listening to Tracy tell dirty jokes.
Then it began to thunder and rain. We started back towards the gates to take us down...and then the rain turned into hail. We dismounted to make things a bit safer, and the horses promptly turned tail to the hail as they do to protect their eyes and faces. We essentially sidepassed our way across the Bench to the gate.
Halfway across the field, I pointed across the valley to the road. "Look at that!"
Mel was leading the team-sorters home at a full trot--exciting to see all 25 guests, Mel, and assorted wranglers in a single-file line trotting through the weather like a posse, or Butch Cassidy's gang, or something. Mel, as is typical, was trotting as fast as she could, hell-bent on getting out of the wet and protecting her guests. The last wranglers who were shooing out the cows and closing the gates made up lost ground at a good canter, their ponies' legs churning beneath them.
The weather let up a bit as we walked down the switchbacks, and Tracy told me that Longonot is one of Mel's treasured Arabs and that he only goes out with good riders. While trying to stay humble, I'm starting to see a trend among the horses that Mel is having me ride...she doesn't seem too concerned over it, and will tell guests with whom I'm riding that "Kristen is riding so-and-so, who only goes out with very good riders..."
When we made it to the corral, all the of the guest horses were tied and the guests had fled to the safety of the sun room to watch the storm over the valley. We began to tie our horses, I leading Longonot to a spot between his brother and a gray Arab gelding.
Then the sky let loose again with another round of hail--these stones bigger and faster than the last. Suddenly the corral erupted into chaos--the tacking corral full of horses pulling at their ropes in an effort to about-face to the weather, and the large corral barely containing the other hundred horses stampeding from one end to the other in panic. Longonot reared as the horses on either side of him swung shut like a door, leaving he and I stuck between them and the hitching posts. I saw Mandy's eyes go wide and she mouthed something probably like "Just let go!" to me...instead I shoved the gray gelding out of the way and held on to Longonot--I was not about to let go of one of Mel's treasures with the chaos going on around me. I ended up standing in the middle of the corral speaking to him while he ran about me in little circles. Tracy, leaning against the barn door nonchalantly smoking a cigarette as though nothing were happening, nodded to me and said something which was lost in the sounds of running horses and high-pitched whinnies, not to mention the sound of hailstones bouncing off the roof, saddles, and our helmets.
Eventually he calmed and stood facing away from the onslaught, while I stood next to him and murmured happy words in his ear. Finally the weather ceased, and I found a place to tie him. In the end, Mel was right--the horse is a treasure.
Went out with one of Mel's rides last week, and she let me ride Rose. I'm starting to think that perhaps it's not a gift she's granting me because she likes me, but a task she's giving me...because she likes me. She says over and over again that "I only let the best riders ride Rose" so it's a gift in the end. I like the crazy mare.
Anyway--rode Buffalo Draw, which I had never seen. It's a dried riverbed canyon, where Bayard's buffalo used to escape (back in the day when they kept buffalo.) Mel took us on an extra loop for some scenery, and at the top of the precipice we could see right down the Wind River all the way to the Thunderhead Ranch, as well as the BLM galloping plains in front of the ranch. It was a lovely view and dramatic climb. Rose did one of her lovely little sideways-run squeal acts again when Mel turned around and said "We're going to have a fast canter here..." which in Mel-speak means "Hold on to your horses because I'm going to gallop crazily up this mountain like a madwoman." Excellent.
The next day, she told me that Arizona needed some riding with "a good rider to set him straight" because he had been "bucking" with guests. In guest-speak this means crow-hopping exuberantly. They're horses. They feel good sometimes.
Nonetheless, he was a well-behaved gentleman--he's a beautiful bay paint with one blue eye and a sweet disposition. He's a good traveler--smooth gaits and a big ground-covering walk. He listened to me quite well and took some lovely slow lopes, letting me give Ruby in front of me plenty of space. Mandy was leading our ride to Lightning Tree, which we reached just as another thunderstorm was rolling in. Since it was quite obvious by our surroundings that lightning did indeed strike this place often, we headed off the mountain rather quickly.
Then we did the Roller Coaster. Arizona got so excited that he put his head down and hopped--nothing too intimidating, but I held his head to keep it from turning into something so exuberant that I would fly over his head. Instead, he braced on the bit that I was holding and sort of leapt up the Coaster in a series of jumps. For a moment I thought we were going to go right over the edge, but fortunately he chose that moment to look up, see where he was going, and make the turn. Other than that, a lovely ride.
On Friday, Mel had a bunch of staff go out together to ride some horses just coming back from lameness to check their soundness. I rode Longonot (a close relative of Astronaut and Cosmonaut...just kidding...) who is a lovely bay Arab gelding with a longstanding trauma to the knee. He was quite clean and sound, and fun to ride (if a little duller than what I like...still a lovely boy.) Kerry also rode, on Longonot's full brother, along with Eliza, Amy (on Geoff, the Icelandic pony), Alex, Emma, Tracy, and Mandy. We basically rode around the Bench for a while, trotted the horses out for Tracy to see, cantered a bit for soundness, and then wandered around aimlessly listening to Tracy tell dirty jokes.
Then it began to thunder and rain. We started back towards the gates to take us down...and then the rain turned into hail. We dismounted to make things a bit safer, and the horses promptly turned tail to the hail as they do to protect their eyes and faces. We essentially sidepassed our way across the Bench to the gate.
Halfway across the field, I pointed across the valley to the road. "Look at that!"
Mel was leading the team-sorters home at a full trot--exciting to see all 25 guests, Mel, and assorted wranglers in a single-file line trotting through the weather like a posse, or Butch Cassidy's gang, or something. Mel, as is typical, was trotting as fast as she could, hell-bent on getting out of the wet and protecting her guests. The last wranglers who were shooing out the cows and closing the gates made up lost ground at a good canter, their ponies' legs churning beneath them.
The weather let up a bit as we walked down the switchbacks, and Tracy told me that Longonot is one of Mel's treasured Arabs and that he only goes out with good riders. While trying to stay humble, I'm starting to see a trend among the horses that Mel is having me ride...she doesn't seem too concerned over it, and will tell guests with whom I'm riding that "Kristen is riding so-and-so, who only goes out with very good riders..."
When we made it to the corral, all the of the guest horses were tied and the guests had fled to the safety of the sun room to watch the storm over the valley. We began to tie our horses, I leading Longonot to a spot between his brother and a gray Arab gelding.
Then the sky let loose again with another round of hail--these stones bigger and faster than the last. Suddenly the corral erupted into chaos--the tacking corral full of horses pulling at their ropes in an effort to about-face to the weather, and the large corral barely containing the other hundred horses stampeding from one end to the other in panic. Longonot reared as the horses on either side of him swung shut like a door, leaving he and I stuck between them and the hitching posts. I saw Mandy's eyes go wide and she mouthed something probably like "Just let go!" to me...instead I shoved the gray gelding out of the way and held on to Longonot--I was not about to let go of one of Mel's treasures with the chaos going on around me. I ended up standing in the middle of the corral speaking to him while he ran about me in little circles. Tracy, leaning against the barn door nonchalantly smoking a cigarette as though nothing were happening, nodded to me and said something which was lost in the sounds of running horses and high-pitched whinnies, not to mention the sound of hailstones bouncing off the roof, saddles, and our helmets.
Eventually he calmed and stood facing away from the onslaught, while I stood next to him and murmured happy words in his ear. Finally the weather ceased, and I found a place to tie him. In the end, Mel was right--the horse is a treasure.