A horse is a horse, of course of course!
My boss boss boss (that's three levels of bossdom) needed a body to ride her calm horse Reni while she tried to figure out her crazy horse Tia. Enter yours truly. So with much glee and camera in tow I went to meet my horse for the day, Reni.
Meet Tia
And Reni.
My ride pimped out in a synthetic endurance saddle.
I was assured this was the most comfortable saddle ever but I still wore my cycling padded butt shorts and boy am I glad! I'm still super sore and we were only out for a few hours. Stupid bony butt. Thanks mom!
There are some super trails in their neighborhood. Dedicated to horses though joggers and walkers like them too. Reni is listening to me fumble for my camera.
Coolest crosswalk, ever! Note the button up nice and high for the horse trail users:
Such a good idea! Though I still think it is a bit weird to have a horse trail that connects residential neighborhoods. There were many gawking neighbors and I kind of felt like we were on parade with the loud clip-clopping of the hooves on pavement. Reni freaked out a bit when we walked by a storm drain. Apparently he's not a fan of water, still or moving, and he did the jump and land with legs splayed thing that horses do. Luckily he just stood there for a moment listening instead of running off like a berserker. Yeah for inexperienced me!
Reni was a good "babysitter" and I arrived back in one piece though my knees, ankles, thighs, butt and back were all complaining. And for the safety conscious I was wearing a helmet for about half the trip. But it was too small and was giving me a migraine. Reni was so calm that I opted to take it off for the ride back. Next time I will have to try and find one that fits so I can be noggin proofed the whole way.
The experiment was a success. Turns out Tia is just kinda crazy. She canters in place whether she's leading, following, on a trail or off. Will require some work.
The horses needed a bit of cooling off so Emma stepped in to help out.
You can't really tell here but there is steam rising from the back of Tia like a pot that is about to boil over. So hot that she's got to have help to cool down.
First a nice, freezing shower. She wasn't a huge fan...
Next, a nice little walk around the paddock.
Momma knows what is going to happen next so a quick towel dry before...
And the after picture. Dirty, but much cooler, horse.
Wonderful time! I offered my services, such as they are, any time they might be needed!
1 comment:
I have never in my life heard of a horse that had to have help cooling down more than just walking it around... kind of like runners who run forever and then walk around to cool off. We worked our horses pretty hard some days herding cows and when we were done we just walked them around a while, brushed them off and let them hit the "mud bath" and throw them some feed. I considered doing the stated "shower" with one of our horses when I was quite young and Dad about kicked my butt.
RB
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