I'm gonna figure you out yet.

So pretty!!

With winter rapidly approaching, we are trying to squeeze in a few more trail rides with the horse beasts. Sunday afternoon we loaded up 2 horses and headed out to the sandhills because it is close, and some nice easy riding. I woke up in the morning thinking that I was going to bring George, but when it was time to go, I COMPLETELY wimped out and brought Cash instead. George probably would have been an angel, but I think I need someone else to try him out there first.

Also, I reached a major milestone in my trailer phobia. I caught both Duke and Cash who both realized something was up, and decided to be a holes. “Hey look how fast I can run!” “Look at my beautiful extended trot!” and my personal favorite “chase me around the round bale feeder! This is so much fun!” But I caught the creeps and managed to load them into the trailer all by myself. It helps that the husband really worked on their trailer loading since the spring. They both hopped right on up and let me secure them. I didn’t even get nervous or panicky! This is a huge step for me even if it seems really small for everyone else.

We got to the trail head and there were a few other trailers already there. I mean it was a perfect day, why wouldn’t you want to be out riding? I brought along my Circle Y, park and trail saddle. I’ve been on the fence about if I want to keep it or sell it. I’ve been mostly riding in it this summer. And I think I am going to keep it. Not only is it a nice saddle, it has some sentimental value to it. It was my first ever ‘real’ saddle that was purchased for me. I’d previously ridden in other peoples saddles. This one was mine, it was picked out by me, for me, in my size and I was the only one who has ever really ridden in it. It was also a gift from the owners of the barn I used to manage. And by gift I mean it was a ‘thank you for busting your ass 7 days a week for us out here and not complaining about not getting paid much money’ gift. I worked hard for that baby so I’ll be damned if I want to just sell it for a couple hundred bucks. The problem with the saddle, and all western saddles for that matter is that I suck at putting them on. Not only are they heavy, and bulky, but I NEVER know if I have it in the right position. An English saddle is a piece of cake. Toss it up there with one hand. Adjust it the pad. Tighten the girth. Mount up. And away we go. I’ve ridden Western probably more than I’ve ridden English, yet I struggle. Every. Single. Time. The process goes like this. Stare at saddle on the rack. Pause and take a deep breath. Grab saddle by the pommel with one hand, and the cantle by the other hand. Bang stirrups into absolutely everything in the near vicinity of my person. Walk towards horse, place saddle on the ground. Adjust saddle pad, tell myself it’s probably too far forward/back. Verbally remind horse to stand still. Look at saddle sitting on the ground. Take another deep breath and let out a big sigh. Say out loud to whoever is within earshot “Western saddles are too heavy!” for the 10,000 time.  Pick up saddle, realize I didn’t put it away correctly last time and struggle to put the cinch and rear cinch back on the little cinch keeper strap. Place the cinch, rear cinch, stirrup and breast collar over the horn so I don’ t have to deal with those getting in my way of putting the saddle on the poor beast standing in front of me. Pick up saddle. Lift it to my knees, then up to my waist, then up to my chest. Waddle over to the horse awkwardly and try to set the saddle on top of the creature who has mysteriously grown about 5 hands taller within a matter of moments. Struggle, but try to be as careful quick and quiet about it as possible. Look at saddle sitting up there and smile. Think about how it didn’t actually kill me even though I was positive it would. Walk over to the far side of horse, pull down stirrup, breast collar, and cinches. Pull out latigo which got stuck under the saddle, like it always does. Make a ‘tent’ under the pommel and then go back to the near side to start the process of cinching up. Get the latigo through the rigging a couple times then go to tie my knot.  Stuggle. Curse and say “why is this strap so darn thick?!” Stuggle some more. Get the knot tied. Worry if cinch is going to cut horse in half because I feel like it is super tight. Worry if it is too loose and I am going to end up underneath horse at some point because I feel like it isn’t tight enough. Stand back look at saddled horse. Realize saddle is a bit too far forward/back and restart the process. Every. Single. Time. Thank goodness I have a horse that can deal with me. Of course as a pay back he decides to be a bit of a creep on the first half of our ride.

Each time I ride Cash, we start to understand each other a bit better. I had been riding him with spurs on because EVERYONE, especially his previous owners said he needed them. That is a bit of a problem for me.  Obviously the problem of my spur straps matching my breast collar, headstall and reins isn’t the problem… because CLEARLY I have the entire matching set. The problem is I don’t really know how to use spurs. With Piney I started using them, but all I had to do was slightly roll the rowel up his side, and he would move out. Piney also had a big barrel so I could always have contact with his side if needed. Pistol never needed spurs because he was almost perfect.  I would think to myself “move out!” and he would read my mind and we would go. Cash, is the smallest horse I’ve ridden in quite a while. He’s not Princess Rainbow Sparkles small, but he is smaller. I felt like when I tried to use my spur on him, I couldn’t ever make contact. Basically I didn’t know where my leg was. I didn’t want to just start wailing on him and run the risk of sticking my spurs straight into him so I struggled with getting him to listen to me. Wearing them on him, especially when he acted up and everyone around me shouting “spur him! Make him go forward! He needs to listen to you!” caused major anxiety in me, and then that traveled right down into Cash. So on Sunday I left my beautiful sparkly spurs in the trailer and rode him without them. He’s buddy sour. Like panicky, I’ll die without my buddy, we need to turn back now, buddy sour. He is also a horse that likes to lead the pack. So shortly after we started our ride, we got a bit ahead of the husband who was blazing his own trails for whatever reason and Cash lost sight of him. His reaction... SPIN like he was a fricken reining horse and try to go back to his buddy. But we talked it over, and I was able to get my leg on him and have my leg actually be effective for a  change and got him to continue on his merry little way until about 5 minutes later when he was certain he was going to die of loneliness again and we did the dance all over. He kept testing me. Which is something that his previous owners said he would do. But he started to realize that I’m not going to fall for his stupid crap anymore. And by the end of the ride he was actually fun to ride. Being able to feel confident in using my leg really helped. He was an ass when he realized he could buffalo me which clearly made me feel like an absolute beginner rider. That feeling is the worst. I’d even said aloud more than once that I am “getting rid of him”. Usually said after a particularly awful moment together.
But once I figure him out, and I am figuring him out, we will make a good team. I just know it.