Today Fancy and I will head to the Blythewood Christmas Parade.
I will be going to this parade with mixed emotions! I will once again see people who are totally clueless in regards to horses and their mentalities. Which is to be expected. This year we are going prepared. We will have at least 4 adults walking along with us to keep the spectators away from the horses. The last thing they need is someone running out (adult, kid, dog) to pet the horse without permission. Don't get me wrong, I love for people to come up an pet my horse, however, it needs to be when I am aware they are coming and am prepared for this. Not the surprise kid/dog running up and spooking the horse.
Parades are a VERY stressful situation for horses. My wife has ridden in one parade and will never do it again. I think some people delight in spooking horses. In one parade last year we were staging by the motorcyles, bad move. There was a VERY considerate gentleman on a bike that noticed the stress level in the horses and pleaded with his friend, "Do not backfire your bike until we get down the road a ways." So what does he do, backfires his bike while I am sitting on Fancy and he is about 10 feet from us! She jumped through her skin was stayed put. Afert a parade anything is TOTAL CHAOS. You are trying to get your horse back to the trailer among people in cars trying to get home. So you have little old ladies in classic cars blowing their horns at you. My goal for this year was to teach Fancy to KICK ON DEMAND and put a nice dent in car doors. No, I didn't do this as I don't want to take the chance in her getting hurt during the kick!
So why do I do this? Experience, for Fancy, not me! She is young and all things considered, a great horse. I have only come off her once and it was my own fault. She has never done anything to try to get me off regardless of what horrible situations I put her in. However, I want her to learn to relax in public situations. She does great when we go places for trail rides. She can run barrels faily well on the home course. However, she is HORRIBLE when running barrels somewhere away from home. Of course, it doesn't help that she always seems to be "in season" when we take her to a show. There is nothing like running barrels on a horse that sees some boys watching her over the fence and she decides to go see them rather than round the last barrel! Oh well! It is something to look back upon and laugh at!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Trail Ride Manners
This past weekend I partciapated in Hoofin' For Heroes at the Double J Ranch in Whitmire, SC. This was a worthwhile benefit ride and for the most part I had a great time. This was my second trip to the Double J, and I will go back.
However, this blog is not about the event nor the Double J. The event organizers and the people working at Doubel J are both fantastic. It is about inconsiderate riders who sadly appear at any such ride.
There is a time and place for everything and being a worthy horse person, you know when it is the right time to do the right thing by riding the right way in your current situation. The problem is those with the cowboy mentality that take no consideration of other riders and horses.
If you want to haul ass, GREAT! There is a time and place for it. However, when you are hauling ass and you come up to other riders you need to slow down to a walk and ask if it is OK to pass. There was a rowdy group there, and I begrudge them none of their fun, however, we had nice group going and once they came upon us our group got spread out into three different groups. My horse backed into a ditch and my wide's horse was bucking and doing 360's, and the rowdy bunch thought it was funny. We also happened to have a couple very young (10 year olds) riders in our group. This could have turned out to be a diaster!
Another irritant, the Rowdy Group also had a horse with a BIG BOOM BOX on it. It was an impressive setup, however, I was out there to enjoy my horse in a natural setting not to listen to someone else's choice of music. While what they were playing was fine, it isn't what I was into at that moment. This also put our horses on edge.
This is all about the lack of consideration for other riders. While the Rowdy Group may have all been VERY experienced riders with bombproof horses, that was not the case with everyone out there. There are riders and horses of all different levels. Some of these horses were very green as were some of the riders. Double J is challenging enough without this added human element.
I change my riding style based on who I am riding with and interestingly enough, my horse Fancy seems to be in tune with the situation. If there are inexperienced riders we take it easy and she does not push to do more than I want. Then there are some people we ride with that we can step it up a notch. She is well aware that if we go it alone, then we will step up another notch and have a very spirited ride.
Again, have your fun, but when you come upon another group, calm it down until you can CALMLY work your way away from them. Be CONSIDERATE!
However, this blog is not about the event nor the Double J. The event organizers and the people working at Doubel J are both fantastic. It is about inconsiderate riders who sadly appear at any such ride.
There is a time and place for everything and being a worthy horse person, you know when it is the right time to do the right thing by riding the right way in your current situation. The problem is those with the cowboy mentality that take no consideration of other riders and horses.
If you want to haul ass, GREAT! There is a time and place for it. However, when you are hauling ass and you come up to other riders you need to slow down to a walk and ask if it is OK to pass. There was a rowdy group there, and I begrudge them none of their fun, however, we had nice group going and once they came upon us our group got spread out into three different groups. My horse backed into a ditch and my wide's horse was bucking and doing 360's, and the rowdy bunch thought it was funny. We also happened to have a couple very young (10 year olds) riders in our group. This could have turned out to be a diaster!
Another irritant, the Rowdy Group also had a horse with a BIG BOOM BOX on it. It was an impressive setup, however, I was out there to enjoy my horse in a natural setting not to listen to someone else's choice of music. While what they were playing was fine, it isn't what I was into at that moment. This also put our horses on edge.
This is all about the lack of consideration for other riders. While the Rowdy Group may have all been VERY experienced riders with bombproof horses, that was not the case with everyone out there. There are riders and horses of all different levels. Some of these horses were very green as were some of the riders. Double J is challenging enough without this added human element.
I change my riding style based on who I am riding with and interestingly enough, my horse Fancy seems to be in tune with the situation. If there are inexperienced riders we take it easy and she does not push to do more than I want. Then there are some people we ride with that we can step it up a notch. She is well aware that if we go it alone, then we will step up another notch and have a very spirited ride.
Again, have your fun, but when you come upon another group, calm it down until you can CALMLY work your way away from them. Be CONSIDERATE!
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