Evening Adventure with MaryJo

I had the morning shift at the barn today. Pam and Cierra where there this morning and I talked to them to see if Cierra might be interested in trying CTR. They were both very enthusiastic about trying this. And I am very excited about having a Jr. to sponsor in CTR. We need more young people in this sport. MaryJo and I also decided to ride together in the evening. That way we'd have the ambition to actually set up some jumps and ground poles to work with. It's hard to work up the ambition to do this when you are riding alone. Since I would be coming back to ride in the evening, I called Tracy and told her I would do the evening shift if she wanted to save herself the drive to the barn. She gladly took me up on the offer. 


I got back to the barn at about 4:30 pm. to bring the horse and mules in and get them fed. Both boys seemed worried about something lurking behind their turnout. But Prize, good boy that he is, led in like a gentlemen. I brought Louie in last. It was just starting to get dark and Louie was VERY sure that there were mule eating coyotes sneaking up behind us as I was leading him in. He kept trying to spin around and look behind us. He did whoa the two times  I asked him to but he also did turn to look behind. Once in the barn though he lost it and bolted forward. I managed to hang on to him, barely........ So, to lead him back out of the barn, and back in, and back out about 20 times. He was still worried but payed attention to me. MaryJo arrived just as I was putting Louie in his stall. It was dark by now and I went down to help her bring up her three horses. Her horse Tanguery  is a bit shy about being haltered. MaryJo showed me the other day how she halters her so I tried it today. It was a success! 


We then went into the arena to set up  jumps and ground poles. MaryJo turned her gelding Arthur loose while we were doing this. We set up two jumps and laid down 4 ground poles. Arthur made great efforts to help us. I decided to bring Louie and and we would both play with the boys in hand. Arthur was being a bit naughty bouncing around and shaking his head in play. At one point as MaryJo was trotting him over the ground poles, he bit her quite hard on the shoulder. She promptly made him think his world was about to come to an end. Now Louie had been pretty quiet and his normal sweet self for the most part. He didn't know what to think of the jumps. He did quickly figure out he could knock them down and then walk over them. Unfortunately, he decided this was the correct thing to do. Then, as I was lunging him over the ground poles, he suddenly spun around, kicked right out at me and bolted off!!!! He was no where close enough to hit me with the kick, but it was absolutely the mule version of giving me the middle finger!!! So, I promptly made him think his world was coming to an end. Both boys were then much more subdued and better behaved. 

So, on to riding the girls. I saddled up Marie in her English saddle, took her out and warmed her up. Marie has always loved jumping. And though I have not done it in years, her ears perked right up at sight of the jumps and she was quite light of step...for Marie...She was very happy it was not going to be just boring circles around the arena. MaryJo had come out into the arena with Tanquery and was going easy with her to warm her up. I took Marie over the cross rail jump a few times and she was all excited about it. She went over very nice but seemed to land a bit funny. I thought I must be too far forward on the landing. So, I then took her over the straight rail jump and she sailed right over, landed nicely and promptly did a BIG buck. I went right over the front of the saddle, lost both stirrups and was laying completely along her neck with my chin nearly between her ears. I knew I was going to eat dirt. But, not so. She stopped and thankfully. And despite all 200 lbs of me laying on her neck, did not lower her neck much past wither height. Soooooooo, I was able to shimmy back down her neck and push myself into the saddle. If she had dropped her head, I'd have come off. BAD MARE!!!! But, fear being the strange thing it is, this didn't even faze me and I got myself settled and back over the jump we went. She once again gave the bucking thing a thought but I got her head right up and got after her and that was the end of that. She was a perfect girl after that. So, Tanguery was the only completely good equine tonight. 

We cooled both the girls down and put them away. Louie was having a total fit the whole time I was riding Marie and had pawed his hay all over his stall. And after I got home I realized I'd forgotten to dump the water from the outside buckets. Or put hay out in Marie's turnout. I got so excited about riding I lost my head!