What can I say, I'm psychic

My last post was titled, "Someone is NOT going to make it through winter, probably me" and I have to say, it's coming true.

Picture it: a beautiful Christmas late afternoon, time to get together with family and enjoy a wonderful meal. Glancing out a window you see three horses, one horse is standing quietly while another is chasing around the third. The concerned owner slips out the backdoor and brings in the poor chased horse and offers her a flake of hay to nimble on, she then returns to the house. But not for long. As she is sitting in the family room, she watches the once quiet horse cantering across the pasture. She wonders if the bully is picking another fight, so she gets up from her chair and goes to the window to see better. The cantering horse settles down and starts walking the fence line. As he reaches the back of the pasture, he spins and starts cantering...er, galloping along the fence. He comes to the corner and instead of turning and following the line, he slips, falls, and slides through the fence.

The owner, who just witness this, is frantic and runs wildly through the house and out the backdoor. The horse is even more frantic as he is now tangled in the electric fence and trying to free himself. As he bolts across the pasture, the electric fence is around his legs, barrel, back and chest. Luckily the fence snaps and he is free, just now understandably upset and still galloping about. The owner reaches the pasture gate, flings it open and runs to her horse's aid. In hindsight, not a good idea; but a good gesture...to one who would appreciate it.

Once the horse is caught, he is blowing and shaking. He is led back into the barn, where the owner tends to his injuries...but wait! There is only one, a rope burn around his chest and shoulder. She thanks her lucky stars that it is not worse and goes about settling down the wild beast.

For the rest of the evening, and well into the night, the concerned owner returns to the barn every hour on the hour to check on her poor-poor horse.

Cast of Characters:
Concerned/Frantic Owner.....Me
Picked on horse....Angel
Bully.....Sancho

Which can only leave our STAR

Quiet horse who ran through fence....DINO.

The damages, December 25, 2010.

And to think, I thought I'd have post about what gifts Angel, Sancho and Dino got for Christmas.

Someone is NOT going to make it through winter, probably me

FOR SALE: 23-year-old spirited (read: PSYCHOTIC) Paso Fino gelding. Has performance record, neck reins, jumps, goes 2nd/3rd level dressage, crosses water - quickly if you don't want to get wet, and is road safe - even knows his way home! Can be a the nervous type; especially if you ask him think.

Last Saturday morning I had the scare of my life, and nearly a heart attack! I turned horses out while I was doing stalls and getting their breakfast ready. Fast forward 30-minutes and I go to bring them in, I open the side door and come face-to-face with a wide open pasture gate, "On no!", I thought.

I turn around just in time to see Sancho galloping across the backyard, afraid another horse would come barreling around the corner I approached with trepidation and peered around. I could see Angel out in a field, digging through snow for grass, and immediately felt a little better that she hadn't joined Sancho in his wild gallop. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see something running down the road, "OH NO, DINO!!" With my heart simultaneously in my throat and my stomach I started to walk across the barn drive to retrieve Angel when I notice Dino was really next to her, hidden from view by the trailer, out in the field digging through snow for grass. "Oh, thank you Lord," I thought and probably even said out loud.

I was now in a conundrum. Do I catch Sancho, who was still running around and risk Angel and Dino joining him. Do I go for Angel, who I would have a 50/50 shot of actually catching, but if she took off Dino would also for sure. Or Dino who has never been loose like this... I stood there contemplating for a few seconds before deciding Dino it was and who had a look on his face that said, "This is too much fun!"

Angel also had a look, "You will never guess what I just showed Dino...oh wait, I bet you can." However, it wasn't Angel's look that concerned me, it was the gleam in her eye. I've seen it many times before, the one that says: "Try me."

I adverted my eyes and calmly walked up to Dino, took hold of his halter (thank God I left those on!) and started walking back to the barn, but then I thought better of it and turned around grabbed Angel's halter as well. I could just see in my mind's eye, Angel taking off to join Sancho and setting Dino off in the process. So I had Dino on my right, Angel on my left and Sancho still running around like a damn fool. I immediately thought, "You, I am going to kill."

I get Angel safely back into her (locked) stall and while in Dino's stall Sancho comes FLYING into the barn, making a beeline for his stall. Once inside, he's snorting and shaking and really there is nothing I can do. If I raise my voice to him, he'll just get that much more upset. So I calmly walked over to his stall, removed his halter, closed and LOCKED his stall door.

Sancho is a...peculiar...horse. Not the brightest light bulb and can really test one's patience. I got him when he was 11-years-old and according to his owner transfer papers, I'm his fifth owner. Basically he was changing hands every other year. And I get why. I really-really-REALLY do. I am sometimes amazed that I've held on to him for more than half his life, and at this point I know I'm in for the long haul.

A really long haul. I just need to recite the Rider's Prayer more often, especially the line "Dearest Creator grant me patience..." Maybe even tattoo it on my body.

OR better yet, his body.

Videos

Here are some older videos I've taken of Dino over the course of the last year. Hopefully at some point I'll have some videos of Angel, Sancho and Dino out in the snow playing.

This first one if from when Dino was boarded last winter at Sandy's Lilly Bug Farm, just down the road from me. Okay, 'down the road from me' is country talk, she's about three miles north of me. I had boarded Dino for the sole reason of an indoor riding arena. It served its purpose. This particular day, Dino was feeling his oats a bit. Check out the buck at :39. The bucking was something Dino had to learn was not acceptable under saddle, it took a bit for him learn that! Sorry it's so dark, I did have the arena lights on.

This next video is of Dino bowing. I talked about this is another post and I do recommend teaching this trick. Super easy, a great focus tool and is a bounding experience.

The last video is the most recent. Dino is still lunged at least once a week. It gives his back a rest, works on his balance, his rhythm, and his gait. It's also great for me, because like most people I'm on time restraints and lungeing is just so much easier. Here Dino is in side-reins which are simply looped onto the girth, if he pulls his head up they will slide up. This way he is not forced into a position, but encouraged into one. The lunge line is attached to the inside ring of the bit only (the bit ring closest to me). Dino is going in a dressage bridle with a padded raised flash cavesson, and the bit is a Happy Mouth double jointed loose ring snaffle bit.

Why I Ride

Prior to WEG, Ariat had some new promo's asking top equestrians to answer a simple question: "Why I Ride". I ride for the companionship and for the thrill of asking a 1,000-lb animal to go against thousands of years of evolution and do what I ask.

I also ride for results shown in the following video. I was at WEG and saw this ride just two months ago. There was an electricity in the air and the crowd really got into the ride, cheering Juan Manuel Muñoz Diaz and Fuego XII of Spain along the way. AND the crowd really did boo when they announced their results, many thought they should have received a medal. Was it a perfect ride? No. Fuego never truly halted at the start of the test and the final halt, he spooked and bolted with Juan who never really saluted the judges. Fuego's extended canter could be more, his pirouette's are way too large, and he was off a bit from the music from time to time. I'm sure there are other things that I'm not seeing either.

But WOW, his extended trot at 1:20 (and again at 2:18) was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! His reach in the half-pass at 1:39 (and again at 2:35) was wonderful. His piaffe at 2:05 (right in front of the judge at C) was beautiful.His two tempis on the 15-meter circle at 4:55 were so balanced and forward. And his one tempis down the centerline at 5:39, one handed no less, were so forward and breathtaking! His extended canter at 5:58 to the piaffe at 6:06 looked easy (but could have been smoothed out) and then to add in the 180 turn. Finally his passage down centerline, again one handed, at 6:17 really sealed the deal with the crowd and had us emotionally invested in his ride...maybe too much! When Juan and Fuego exited the ring, every single person (in a sold out stadium of 25,000) was on their feet applauding the aesthetic ride.



That is why I ride, I strive for this type of happy forward moving horse and I ride for the aesthetic appeal of said ride. Even if I never showed, I would be over the moon to have this type of relationship with my horse.