buzzing about horses: We Survived!

Today we survived it all! Bossy know it all's, falls and angry mares.

We woke up nice and early.. Well at least WildHorse did. HorseFrenzy slept in!
We pulled on our jodhpurs and jodhpur boots and marched into the paddock to catch our naughty ponies\horse.

They saw us coming but we caught them in the end! Once saddled we set off for a nice peaceful ride.
We went up behind one of the houses on the farm and had fun running and jumping a home made cross country course. Rain decided to take off up and hill and not stop at the flat top. Her mood "Lets go all the way to the top".

After that, HorseFrenzy challenged WildHorse: She would ride the wild loopy ready-to-make-babies stallion if WildHorse would! Not one to scare at a challenge, WildHorse agreed.

So without much thought to having two mares next door (in season mare, might you add) to the stallions paddock. We got the little romper in. Lets say he was very excited to see the mares ;)

The mares were playing up and showing to the stallion. So we moved the mares next door to the next door paddock and it was full of wet MUD! They rolled away and when we looked back we had two brown horses not a brown horse and appaloosa.

We got Snuff (aka the wild loopy ready-to-make-babies stallion) into a pen, and decided to lunge him. This was pretty much a failure. He just wanted to call to the mares next door, as well as stare at them.

We smartly decided that we weren't getting anywhere with those mares right next door! So we moved them where Snuff couldn't see them.

After a while of him being upset he settled down. This is when we found out we had a crowd. 2 girls sat on the fence staring at us.

Um.

So we decided to keep going, and WildHorse did the splits (almost) as she started getting on Snuff. She wasn't to keen to throw herself on straight away (much to the disappointment of HorseFrenzy). Anyways, she finialy got on Snuff, and HorseFrenzy lead her around for a few minutes.

Then she went over and sat on the fence. 'Try trotting' she called from her safe perch (away for the wild stallion, definitely not on him). WildHorse obliged. Our audience spoke! 'Shorten your reins and he'll trot.' WildHorse held the withering glace inside and gave a friendly nod without following their advise (she didn't want to upset Snuff who was still getting used to the bit again, let alone having his soft mouth pulled on).

Each time Snuff got a gentle smack on the muzzle for trying to bite us, the whispering on the fence started up. Every move, it seemed was being discussed by our knowable audience. It became a bit annoying, but we gritted our teeth and forged on.

HorseFrenzy got on next, and the challenge was complete. Again, the audience opened its mouth. 'Can we have a ride?' HorseFrenzy, quite torn shrugged and said 'ok'. She didn't want the girls to get hurt, or upset Snuff, but she didn't want to say no.

We gave the audience our helmets, and lined Snuff up so Number One could get on him, when a third girl turned up! Number One took her time, and in the end was to scared to get on. Instead of letting the other girls have a turn, she decided she wanted to led him around the pen. HorseFrenzy shrugged again (she's not one to have awkward battles with girls she hardly knows :P)

It is a truly awkward moment when you know the horse has worked hard and needs to go back to its pen but the person leading doesn't seem to be willing to stop.

HorseFrenzy as gently as she could suggested that the stallion go back to his paddock. The girl said sure and then took off with her other friend.

WildHorse and HorseFrenzy decided it was time for lunch, and made for home. Almost 2 hours later, we dragged ourselves off the couch, and rode bareback up the road to deliver a message. Then we decided to go for a bareback ride: Let the drama begin!

HorseFrenzys point of view : While I was busy looking around, Rain and WildHorse took off up this grass ledge on side of the road. Wildhorse didn't realize she was on it till they were up on it. The ledge was quite high and narrow and Wildhorse realized the only way to get off it was to carefully ride Rain to the end where it slowly went down to road level. Rain had other ideas, seeing a man fixing his fence with a motorbike. That was enough for Rain. I shouted to WildHorse Rain was backing up. It was too late, Rain started sliding backwards down the slope. She bolted back up into the barbed fence. WildHorse was trying to stay on as best as someone bareback could. Before she could shout Rain slid backwards down the hill. I thought Rain was going to fall backwards onto WildHorse. My heart was in my mouth! Rain slid to the road and spun around fast, unseating WildHorse in the process. I watched as poor WildHorse was catapulted to the road. Rain stopped, short of stepping on WildHorse. I sat on Specs and watched in horror. WildHorse was lying down and not breathing! Ahh! But them she groaned. Nothing was broken. Only a bleeding hand, a bit winded and a sore gluteus. Thank God!

WildHorses point of view: I was busy looking at the pretty chestnut pony behind us, when I felt a weird bump, and I realized that Rain and I were on a small ridge. The only way off was down the end, and not far off was a man fixing a fence. He had a motorbike and a dog. Rain stopped and stared, then took a few more steps. Instead of continuing on, she decided she'd rather go backwards. I suddenly realized that she was going to try going down the bank (we are taking pretty much two meters on a (almost) vertical). I clamped my legs on, grabbed her mane, and the slide began. Rains' head was above me, and I freaked out, thinking she might fall backward on me, or I would fall off and she would stomp all over me. Instead, I managed to hang on, and we made it to the bottom. However, Rain wasn't finished! She decided she'd like to have a quick spin, and because I had just relaxed, glad to be off the ledge/bank, I flew off. Pain instantly filled my left side, the side I landed on. However, I rolled away from Rains legs. Rain took off at a trot, eyeing up some grass. The man called out 'are you ok?' I let out a groan and strangled 'yes'. I struggled to gasp a proper breath, and lay back on the ground, gritting my teeth. The pain was real! I brushed the gravel out for my hand, which promptly began bleeding. Carefully I picked myself up off the ground, and limped over to Rain. Nothing was broken, although at first I felt like my hip was, or something inside had burst.

Then WildHorse spent at least 10minutes trying to get on Rain. HorseFrenzy was in hysterics!

There ends today's adventure! We finish with some wise advise:

If you ride a pony, pray!