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Episode #1:
When I had first gotten my Paso Fino gelding back from the trainer as a
2-year-old, my friend, Marie, rode him to the riding rings in the county
park near my home. I was too scared to ride him over myself, as we would
have to cross a bridge over a waterfall to get to that section of the
park. Instead, I met her there in her car with her 3-year-old son in
tow. When she got there, I got on Silverado and she took her son to the
playground behind the rings.
We were cortoing around the ring pretty as you please when Silverado
bogged down in the deep sand and started to go down in front. I held on
nicely and didn't get pitched over his head (a miracle!). Well, he
hopped up again, but because of his forward motion, he couldn't get all
the way up in one hop. In fact it took three hops:
Hop 1: I landed on the cantle.
Hop 2: I landed on his croup.
Hop 3: I landed in the sand.
He was finally up and continued merrily around the ring until he got even
with me on the other side, when he stopped and looked quizically at me as
if to say "what are you doing over there?". He did stand there quiet as
you please while I brushed myself off and got back on. I looked around,
redfaced, to see if Marie had seen that, but, thankfully, she had her
back to the rings!
Episode #2:
A couple of years later my friend Jan and I were doing a Hunter Pace on
our two Paso Fino geldings. The early spring day was cool with a brisk
wind blowing. Silverado was still a youngster, while her new horse, Ro,
was 8 going on 3. They were both feeling their oats that day.
We got to the starting gate, and when we were timed out, Ro took off at a
canter, right over a ditch just outside the starting gate. Well,
Silverado HATED ditches! He stood there wavering back and forth, trying
to decide what to do while I tryied to get him to calmly step down into
it. He finally made a decision: he FLEW over it! Since he had never
jumped anything before, I was totally unprepared for the jump, but,
again, I managed to hold on, though I was ALMOST tossed over his head.
Well, in the excitement of jumping the ditch, and seeing his buddy
running up the hill ahead of us, he gave a little buck just as he landed
on the other side of the ditch. At this point, I was just coming back
down into the saddle, so the result was that he catapulted me into the
air like a ball off a bat! I did a sommersault and landed on my back,
and my head bounced on the ground. (Thank goodness I NEVER ride without
a helmet!) I instinctively sat up and looked around, though the earth
was literally spinning around me. Once the earth stopped spinning, I was
fine. No other bruises.
But wait! I'm not done yet! Jan saw Silverado go galloping past her,
and turned to see if I was OK. She saw me sit up and look in her
direction. She figured all was well, so she took off after Silverado.
She overtook him in a few yards, and stopped both horses. She started
getting out of the saddle to pick up Silverado's reins when Ro decided
that running free looked like fun. He took off just as she was putting
her foot on the ground. The result: Jan ended up on her backside on the
ground and both horses went off down the trail.
Well, I had gotten back on my feet by then and the timer offered me a
seat while I waited for the horses to be rounded up. Jan, meanwhile, got
up and immediately started off after the horses. However, just around
the bend the trail outbound went to the left, while the trail inbound
went to the right. Which way did they go? Someone had seen the whole
thing happen and jumped in a car to go after the horses. She picked Jan
up along the way.
Meanwhile, back at the timer, I heard a voice behind me ask "is anyone
looking for a couple of horses?" I turned around and lo and behold,
there he was with both Ro and Silverado in hand. They had taken a side
trail back to the start, and he caught them by offering them some apple.
Well, Jan was still out looking, and I was holding the horses. We were
both using Sharon Saare mechanical hackamores on that ride, and I noticed
that Ro's hackamore was on upside down! No wonder she was having trouble
with him! She was using a halter-bridle where the bit clips on and off
the halter, so I figured I would just unclip the hackamore and turn it
around. Well, to make sure we didn't loose Ro again, I handed his reins
to the man who had caught the horses, as I proceded to unclip the
hackamore.
Well, folks, I guess you can see where this is leading.... The reins were
attached to the hackamore, not the halter. As soon as I took the
hackamore off the halter, Ro wandered away. I just stood there staring
back and forth at the hackamore and the man holding the reins, trying to
figure out why the reins didn't hold Ro. (I guess that bump on the head
wasn't so small after all.) Luckily, the guy still had some apple left,
and it was no big deal catching Ro again. I put the hackamore back on
correctly just as Jan returned.
We remounted and restarted the pace. We were supposed to be riding
Hilltopper (the slow pace), but ended up just off the time for the Field
Hunters (the fast pace). The horses were still wired, and we laughed the
whole way around the course!
We still get a good laugh out of it!
Jo
jalderman@juno.com
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