Saturday, November 7, 2009

Warhorse in the making...day one


It was a rather relaxed, late start to the day, with mum loading me into the truck just after 10am. Then on the road again... from the feel of the road, I thought we might be heading back to the place we have the Steve Brady course, but after going through this little town we went straight ahead for a bit... maybe I'm going to the arena to go riding with Petra, Simon, Rose and Restless? No we turned too soon - hmmm somewhere new.
When I got off the truck I recognised two of the horses I had seen at Steve Brady - they belong to a lady called Anna - those two boys are called Cruise and Ra - they are big and grey - I don't like them too much - they are the wrong colour - why would anyone make a horse any colour other than me?
Ra and Cruise were dressed up all funny like, and so was Cruise's rider - he was wearing something called armour. I'd never seen anything like it before, but what do you expect, humans do some silly things!!
When it was time for a ride, we started off riding towards another horse... those greys are scary - I'm sure they are going to try and bite me each time I ride past. I think they are mad at me for being so pretty!?! We kept riding towards a different horse each time, and sometimes there was a horse coming at me from the side - it was kinda a weird thing to do.
Next we played this game called 'tag'. Apparently someone is 'it' and has to try and tag the other riders on their left shoulder. I showed them all how not to be tagged - for one thing I don't really want to let another horse into MY personal space, and then that stuff that mum had been teaching me through the Steve Brady clinics and as homework kicked in, and I kept turning my butt around (don't I have a lovely butt) so the 'it' person couldn't tap my mum on the shoulder. Fun stuff.
The time to ride a pattern through cones like we have done at SB clinics before (sorry, hooves are getting sore and don't feel like typing the full name anymore). Then Anna decided to take things up another level and had these warriors in chain mail standing in the centre of the cones banging their sticks (swords? - whats a sword for) on big things (shields apparently), making all manner of strange noises - especially the one in the helm that I met earlier - I don't think it can be human, though mum assures me it is. We had to ride past these warrior things. Those shields are scary though - especially the big red one. And then our riders picked up one of those stick sword thingys and we had to walk past while our riders hit the shields with their swords. It was funny feeling mum trying to make me do things when she only used one hand on the reins - hey mum, you need to practice that!
The last thing we had to do was a charge for the cameras. They said only a charge at the trot, but where was the fun in that - especially when mum had a sword in the other hand. How about a nice in hand canter? twice even :) Though the second time made me paws errr slow down... when mum wanted me to trot between two of those big warrior things.
It was a fun day, and then I got to spend some time in a paddock with GRASS!!!! Though I did have to share it with those 3 grey boys. Cruise and Ra are okayish, even if they are grey and boys, but Murph doesn't like me. Oh well.
I didn't really want to get in the truck and go home when the day had finished, but it was good to go back and see the other girls and get DINNER and more long GRASS. But boy was I tired!

No comments:

Post a Comment