I used to ride a neighbor's older Appaloosa stallion whenever I could find
the time. He was a wild child, chargey, noisy, and otherwise full of
himself all the time. He'd had little handling and no riding in over
2 years until I showed up. I kept riding him because it was fun and he was
also the only horse available to me. When I became pregnant he completely
changed how he behaved around me. The chargey, pushy, spoiled
dork was gone, replaced by "Pokey the pony". Really, he would poke along
like an old nag on the same dirt roads he previously tried to run off with
me on. Sometimes he would start to dance around and then stop.
Also as my pregnancy progressed to the point where I couldn't fit in the
saddle, he became more and more patient. He would wait patiently while I
hauled my ungainly ass up on his bare back with the help of a kitchen chair
for our walk around the pasture (same pasture he had bucked me off
in before my pregnancy). I thought maybe I was being successful in
training him until his owner caught me on him one day and ran up to us in a
panic. He said the horse had bucked him off a few days
before and he didn't want me to ride him anymore. I
was almost 9 months pregnant at the time and riding
this horse was the only thing that made me feel better so I was really
bummed out. Fortunately I went into labor 2 weeks later and had a
little girl to keep me busy. I don't know how he knew I was pregnant
and not just fat. I guess it could be smell or something but I
thought that stuff was species specific. Maybe it's something
we (people) don't pick up on anymore. Who knows but it was
weird. I only rode him once after I had my baby. We just rode around
in the pasture but he was back to his bouncy, chargey self. I moved
away not long after that.
