Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I have a very funny story about Taffy and joggers that I like to tell 
every once in awhile.  Gets some people mad as Hell and others rolling 
in the isles.

Taffy and I always trained alone because everyone was at work when I 
was able to ride.  One day we were on the back side of the Palos Verdes 
Peninsula (So Cal for you non-PS'ers) trotting up the long hill from 
Portuguese Bend.  Way up ahead of us there was a jogger making his way 
up the fire road.  Taffy enjoyed the idea of a little company and sped 
up her trot.  When we came abreast of this guy Taffy slowed down, 
waaaay down, until she was head to head with this guy.  Taffy turned an 
eye and an ear on him.  The jogger turned his head to look at her.  
Taffy looked ahead.  The jogger looked ahead.  Taffy turned her 
attention on the jogger.  The jogger looked at Taffy.  This went on for 
about 3 or 4 minutes.  The jogger never said anything to me and I never 
said a word to him.  Taffy and this jogger just sort of fell into the 
same rhythm as they jogged up the fire road.  Taffy decided she didn't 
like her position and dropped back and fell in behind the jogger.  Her 
nose was about 6 inches behind his neck.  The jogger never changed 
pace, and never said a word.  Taffy never touched the jogger.  They 
both seemed perfectly at ease in this position.  Granted Taffy was 
trotting much slower than normal, but she was quite content to just 
hang behind this guy.  Then, out of the blue, Taffy put her head down, 
stuck it between this guy's legs, lifted him up off the ground and 
launched him about 3 feet up the road!

I was mortified.  The guy never broke his rhythm.  He came down jogging 
and just kept right on going.  Taffy gleefully tossed her head and sped 
up to the guy, pulling up alongside him again.  I'm apologizing through 
my clenched teeth desperately trying not to laugh.  All this guy said 
was, "I guess I'm suppose to speed up."  That did it for me.  I'm 
laughing so hard I damn near pee-ed my pants.  Taffy was quite pleased 
with herself.  She's now trying to bang her head against this guy - 
something she does when following a horse that is going too slow.  I 
prevented her from doing that, but this jogger finally asked where I 
was headed.  When I told him up to the fire station he said it was a 
good thing he was headed off on the other fork because he didn't think 
he could go faster up the steeper part of the hill.

We parted company just a little ways farther and Taffy actually moped 
up the remaining hill, but I'm quite sure the jogger was relieved - he 
got to slow down.

Taffy has been known to lift horses hind legs off the ground when not 
traveling the speed she desires, but I never dreamed she'd do that to a 
person.  Never ran into that jogger again.

That wasn't Taffy's only run in with joggers.  Some day I'll tell you 
about the time we came upon an entire high school cross country track 
team.

Tori

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Personally, I shouldn't give a s--- where the other people on the course
are, and if I find myself starting to concern myself over this, I remind
myself that this is the first step on the road to overriding my horse and
tell myself to "knock it off!"        :)
~  Kat Swigart

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