Horses are fun!
I had the scariest fun I have had in a very long time this weekend. I went to an intermediate horsemanship class and trail ride on Saturday.
The instructor was Dr. David Carter of Natchez , MS. He finished fourth in the National competition last year in the Mustang makeover challenge with Silverado. He let me use his wife's horse KC. KC is a former barrel racer who doesn't see a lot of action any more. KC is a twenty something quarter horse who apparently doesn't realize he is past his prime. He still has a lot of go in him. I picked him because I could get on him from the ground without a mounting block. He turned out to be a great horse. The class started with some typical bending and flexing then moving the various parts such as hips, shoulders and ribs, then moving on to side passes and such. David said KC had never done some those things but he caught on quickly. There was several other people in the class. Before the lunch break we hobbled most of the horses and then moved on to lay them down. We didn't do that with KC though since the old man gets a pass on that. Instead I got to practice on a little mare called Habanero. David teaches all his horses to lay down. Silverado does it if you apply pressure to a spot in the middle of his back.
After the lunch break we saddled up and headed out on the trail. The first obstacle was a three foot bank on the other side of the road. The first couple of horses went up the bank just fine. Then Ruthie Love (8 year old girl) on Cash (David's mare) and David on Legend (David's new horse) went up the bank. Apparently Legend got a little too close to Cash and she let him have a hoof to show her unhappiness with him. He tried to dodge her kick while jumping up the bank and ending up rearing. So David jumped off and ended up on his back while Legend ran away. I was thinking "oh boy", what have I got myself into. While David got up and caught up with Legend, the rest of us crossed the road without incident. We covered a few more little obstacles like a washout, going up and down it. The we had to cross back to the pasture and go down about a 6' bank. There was pavement and possible cars at the bottom and I will admit to some significant anxiety about this. But David coached me through it and I did just fine. We went on to some more up and down practice with the obstacles getting steeper and the turns getting sharper. Then we went across the shallow end of the pond. One of the horses managed to lay down on her belly with her rider after David had warned her what to watch for. It was funny. I was glad KC didn't try to do that.
After the pond we headed off to the serious stuff in the woods. To call it a trail is being generous. There was barely enough room for one horse to pass single file. You had to watch for vines, low branchs and drop-offs. One of the unique features of the land between St. Francisville LA and Vicksburg MS, including Natchez is the loess soil conditions. In case you have forgotten your college geology, this means wind deposited soil. The unique part comes from the way this stuff erodes. It doesn't slope gently off. It erodes away vertically. This leaves very interesting terrain to traverse where you can have 20 and 30 ft elevation differences within a few yards or even feet of each other. When I say steep, I am not kidding. We went up down and through the woods with each trail getting progressively harder. I can't decide if the scariest one was the twenty ft nearly vertical drop or the one where we danced along the very narrow ledge going parallel to the edge. I am pretty sure that ledge was not more than two feet wide. If the horse had slipped, we would have rolled right into some trees. KC knew what he was doing though and I made it out just fine. A couple of times I lost a stirrup but I held on and made it through. i was hoping KC couldn't tell how nervous I was. David has several trails mapped through the woods on his property between some wide swaths that have been cleared and he keeps mowed. I think I breathed a sigh of relief at the end of each trail.
David suggested that the other lady, me and Ruthie Love skip the last trail and go around on the cleared path since it was the most challenging one of all. In my case I think he was thinking of me and KC. We were both beat. I didn't argue about it. When Kathy protested he explained that he had been on this particular one 4 times and had come off twice. At that point Kathy was also convinced. So the cowboys went ahead without us womenfolk and all came out still in the saddle. This last trail apparently had a series of ravines which required the horse to jump across and if he didn't make it all the way across he would have to jump out of it. I had no interest in that kind of challenge.
After surviving the trail we headed back to the pond. We unsaddled the horses, took off our boots and got back on bareback. Then we took the horses back into the pond. The water felt great. I didn't even care that it was muddy. The pond is deep enough that in some places the horses have to swim. It was the coolest thing I have done in a long time. My bareback skills are limited since I don't get to practice much. I was so proud of myself to still be on KC after he swam across the deep part.
It was a great day. Makes me want a horse more than ever. Someday....*sighs heavy sigh*
Pictures of the pretties:
KC - What a trooper. He is a buckskin with tiger stripes on his legs.
Cash -- She wasn't crazy about getting her picture taken. Very mare-ish bay but she knows some tricks. Ruthie Love can get her to lay down with a little pressure on her back.
Silverado -- Mustang extraordinaire! He didn't want to cooperate with getting his picture taken either. Checkout the mustang challenge from last year if you want to see him in action. What a cutie! After the shallow end of the pond, David got him out for the trail instead of riding Legend. He is still wet from being in the pond.
The instructor was Dr. David Carter of Natchez , MS. He finished fourth in the National competition last year in the Mustang makeover challenge with Silverado. He let me use his wife's horse KC. KC is a former barrel racer who doesn't see a lot of action any more. KC is a twenty something quarter horse who apparently doesn't realize he is past his prime. He still has a lot of go in him. I picked him because I could get on him from the ground without a mounting block. He turned out to be a great horse. The class started with some typical bending and flexing then moving the various parts such as hips, shoulders and ribs, then moving on to side passes and such. David said KC had never done some those things but he caught on quickly. There was several other people in the class. Before the lunch break we hobbled most of the horses and then moved on to lay them down. We didn't do that with KC though since the old man gets a pass on that. Instead I got to practice on a little mare called Habanero. David teaches all his horses to lay down. Silverado does it if you apply pressure to a spot in the middle of his back.
After the lunch break we saddled up and headed out on the trail. The first obstacle was a three foot bank on the other side of the road. The first couple of horses went up the bank just fine. Then Ruthie Love (8 year old girl) on Cash (David's mare) and David on Legend (David's new horse) went up the bank. Apparently Legend got a little too close to Cash and she let him have a hoof to show her unhappiness with him. He tried to dodge her kick while jumping up the bank and ending up rearing. So David jumped off and ended up on his back while Legend ran away. I was thinking "oh boy", what have I got myself into. While David got up and caught up with Legend, the rest of us crossed the road without incident. We covered a few more little obstacles like a washout, going up and down it. The we had to cross back to the pasture and go down about a 6' bank. There was pavement and possible cars at the bottom and I will admit to some significant anxiety about this. But David coached me through it and I did just fine. We went on to some more up and down practice with the obstacles getting steeper and the turns getting sharper. Then we went across the shallow end of the pond. One of the horses managed to lay down on her belly with her rider after David had warned her what to watch for. It was funny. I was glad KC didn't try to do that.
After the pond we headed off to the serious stuff in the woods. To call it a trail is being generous. There was barely enough room for one horse to pass single file. You had to watch for vines, low branchs and drop-offs. One of the unique features of the land between St. Francisville LA and Vicksburg MS, including Natchez is the loess soil conditions. In case you have forgotten your college geology, this means wind deposited soil. The unique part comes from the way this stuff erodes. It doesn't slope gently off. It erodes away vertically. This leaves very interesting terrain to traverse where you can have 20 and 30 ft elevation differences within a few yards or even feet of each other. When I say steep, I am not kidding. We went up down and through the woods with each trail getting progressively harder. I can't decide if the scariest one was the twenty ft nearly vertical drop or the one where we danced along the very narrow ledge going parallel to the edge. I am pretty sure that ledge was not more than two feet wide. If the horse had slipped, we would have rolled right into some trees. KC knew what he was doing though and I made it out just fine. A couple of times I lost a stirrup but I held on and made it through. i was hoping KC couldn't tell how nervous I was. David has several trails mapped through the woods on his property between some wide swaths that have been cleared and he keeps mowed. I think I breathed a sigh of relief at the end of each trail.
David suggested that the other lady, me and Ruthie Love skip the last trail and go around on the cleared path since it was the most challenging one of all. In my case I think he was thinking of me and KC. We were both beat. I didn't argue about it. When Kathy protested he explained that he had been on this particular one 4 times and had come off twice. At that point Kathy was also convinced. So the cowboys went ahead without us womenfolk and all came out still in the saddle. This last trail apparently had a series of ravines which required the horse to jump across and if he didn't make it all the way across he would have to jump out of it. I had no interest in that kind of challenge.
After surviving the trail we headed back to the pond. We unsaddled the horses, took off our boots and got back on bareback. Then we took the horses back into the pond. The water felt great. I didn't even care that it was muddy. The pond is deep enough that in some places the horses have to swim. It was the coolest thing I have done in a long time. My bareback skills are limited since I don't get to practice much. I was so proud of myself to still be on KC after he swam across the deep part.
It was a great day. Makes me want a horse more than ever. Someday....*sighs heavy sigh*
Pictures of the pretties:
KC - What a trooper. He is a buckskin with tiger stripes on his legs.
Cash -- She wasn't crazy about getting her picture taken. Very mare-ish bay but she knows some tricks. Ruthie Love can get her to lay down with a little pressure on her back.
Silverado -- Mustang extraordinaire! He didn't want to cooperate with getting his picture taken either. Checkout the mustang challenge from last year if you want to see him in action. What a cutie! After the shallow end of the pond, David got him out for the trail instead of riding Legend. He is still wet from being in the pond.