I went to see my horse today, but I didn't feel like riding. I thought it would be fun to just play so I opened her stall door and let her into the arena. With nothing holding her back she began to run, buck, rear, and play with me watching her and waiting for her to pull a shoe.
Never thinking ahead, I just let her have fun without thinking I should put some gear on her, to protect her from herself. After she calmed down and started walking towards me, I thought it would be a great idea to jump on her bareback. I had done this hundreds of times, but I had not tried it yet without her having a bridal, or any type of control up front, before.
Getting her to stand still was half the battle so I could jump onto her back. As soon as I got up there, I instantly felt vulnerable and totally at her mercy and she KNEW it. Walking briskly towards the big door, that was closed luckily, she knew I had no control over her head meaning I could not stop her in the traditional way.
We made it around the arena safely a couple of times. Running into walls and making zig-zags all around the arena was occurring over and over again because I was "steering" her with my leg pressure. Obviously it wasn't working. I finally got us to walk counter-clockwise around the arena, which was very exciting. As we rounded the corner and had the door to our backs, a gust of wind shook the door.
Since Georgia sometimes spooks at the squirrels in the trees, you could imagine that she thought the door was going to eat her. With a jolt we lunged forward.
At that moment, I thought that maybe it wasn't a good idea to ride bareback, no bridal, no helmet with no one else in the barn and no cell phone to call for help if something happened.
Georgia is still running away from the killer door then she put her head down like she was about to throw a buck into the mix. I grabbed her mane, squeezed my legs to hang on (which only spurred her on) and got ready to fall.
Impulsive? yes I am but at least my life is never boring.
I don't know much about horses, but I have always loved them. Its awesome that you have a horse, and that you take the time to hang out with her. I hope you are ok after the fall! That must have been extremely frightening, how do you think and act when you know that something like that is going to happen? I know that I would for sure go into shock, so kudos to you for being so good with horses, I'm jealous!
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to say that I love your layout, and I really like the koi pond at the top of your page:)
That is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThe way you described your experience is very exciting and simplistically detailed. It must have been a complete rush of adrenaline. I don’t know much about horses as well but I have always wanted to ride bareback on a horse. It always seemed so enthralling to just feel completely out of control and trust in something that has a mind of its own. Hope you and your horse were alright after.
Aren't there times when you would just like to let go and run and jump just like she did?
ReplyDeleteI actually do run and play with her sometimes, but because she weights like 1100 pounds I try not to encourage that too much. I did run with her that day and she almost plowed me over. I am really lucky she listens to voice commands, otherwise I would have been dead meat.
ReplyDeleteJust so everyone knows, I actually held on and did not fall that time. I have defiantly fallen off before and I'm sure it will happen again.
I can always tell when she is about to do something crazy. Her whole body tenses up and I can even feel that through the saddle when I am not riding bareback. Her nostrils also flare wide enough to fit a grapefruit in each one when she is full of "piss and vinegar".
If I see something that I think will spook her before she sees it, and I tense up she immediately gets nervous. It was only after spending a lot of time together that we can read each other's body language like that.
Whenever I know I am going to fall I have to try and throw my body to the left side of her, unless that is completely unsafe. I also try and relax my body because if I am too tense, I will break something. I have to fall to the left because I had shoulder surgery on my right shoulder about 3 years ago. If I fall on it I will never be able to ride or use it like I do now. I feel much more fragile now so I did put a huge amount of trust into my horse's sound mind. I don't think I could afford that kind of injury at the age of 24, not yet at least.