Uneventful Weekend

Not much to report from my neck of the woods. Last weekend I had a good time with Buckshot. On Saturday, the arenas at the farm had very soupy footing so we rode on the trail. Buckshot did great at the lead spot of four horses. There were a few times he wasn’t too happy to go forward (I think he thought the class should be over by then!) but he listened to me when I insisted we walk on. Good boy!

On Sunday, we were alone when we rode. The main arena had good enough footing to ride in it and we had a good time, working on patterns and exercises during our warm up, followed by trotting figure eights and doing some limited cantering. Then we headed to the trail and went through the woods. We took a new route this time, one that Buckshot had shown me on an earlier ride. (I had checked with the BO about the safety of this section and today, we would ride it.) This small trail, off the main trail, led to the end of the woods, to a spot between two pastures. The fencing of the pastures is separated by about twelve feet, which allows the farm equipment to get into the woods without disrupting horses in these pastures. So Buckshot stopped at the edge of the woods, a twelve foot lane of grass in front of us, a pasture to the left with the farm’s Arab stallion in it, the pasture on the right with a boarded horse and a pony in it. I had been advised to stay closer to the boarded horse and pony side. I urged Buckshot on, and we walked on the lane. Almost immediately the stallion saw us and started cantering, faster and faster toward us. I kept us closer to the other fence and kept us walking. The stallion charged us, stopping at the last minute at his fence line, and then he reared! Oh, my gosh, I just kept us moving forward, but I was petrified! Nothing in the world looked so tiny and insignificant as that fencing when a charging stallion is on the other side of it!! We just had a few more feet to walk, and as we got to the end, Buckshot bolted! I held on and got him back to a walk right away, but I understood how he felt!! Oh, my gosh! I think we’ll leave that route alone from now on. Scary!

And thinking about it, Buckshot isn’t scared of much, but he obviously was scared of the stallion, and yet he didn’t bolt immediately, he walked, and tried to bolt a few minutes later. What a courageous horse!! As we headed back to the barn, I was talking in a high-pitched squeaky voice! I knew I was scared. LOL! Hope your weekend didn’t include any surprises from a stallion!!