My Ride

My ride went very well, in case you were wondering. Which you probably weren't because, well, it's not like it was a once in a lifetime experience or anything. But you're still gonna hear about it. So sit still and listen. Read. Sit still and read.

Well I figured I would have to go out on the 4-wheeler and get the horses in. But I guess they had snuck up without my knowing it, because as I walked out towards the oil shed, where we store the ATV, I noticed the entire herd of horses in the lot. I think, "Well thank you Lord, I certainly appreciate that." So I grab my bridle and go out to catch Wyatt... And what would you know, he had just moments earlier gotten an urge to roll. In the pond. Resulting in a once nice, clean horse becoming a nasty, stinky horse caked with black pond mud and dripping with pond scum.

Now I find myself thinking, "Noo! Why Lord, why?!?!"

I will never understand why the good Lord does what he does sometimes. I guess we just have to trust he knows what he's doing, even when he lets my horse roll in black mud. So I lead Wyatt up to the pens where I begin using a metal comb, stiff brush, and rubber curry comb to remove the mud from the left side of Wyatt, which was mostly dry. Appears he hadn't rolled on that side-- but his legs, belly, and entire right side was covered in the stinky mess. So I used the horse to wash him off... Kinda. I mean it got most of the mud off, but he was still a mess. Then I used the rubber comb-brush thingy and a sweat scraper to get the water off. Then I found an old t-shirt and did my best to dry him off.

If you can't tell by now, I was extremely determined to go for this ride.

So when he was fairly dry, I hopped on and off we went. (I figured my jeans would get wet, but they didn't, so it was all good.) So I go through the horse lot, into another lot, and freedom lay just beyond the lot gate!

Well, kinda. See we have this old cow dog, about 12 years or so, his name is Sam. He's a Catahoula mix and scares the crud out of almost everybody who doesn't know he is a gentle giant, partly because he's so huge, partly because his head resembles that of a pitbull, and partly because he has marks such as scars across his head, belly, legs and a split ear from fights.

Grrrr. Me scary dog!

Psssh. Yeah right. Anyway, he's really old and has joint problems, I don't doubt he has arthritis, we need to start giving him glucosamine or something. Anyway, I noticed that he was following me. Now I planned to go about 4 or 5 miles, and gallop/lope a little bit, and it would be way too hard on him to try and catch up, and my heart would break just leaving him behind. But I figured if I loped away fast, he would stay near the house. So that's what I did, but when I was about a 1/4 mile away from the water lot, I could see him loping after me, limping and aching.



So we walked/trotted back to the house where I decided to lock Sam in the yard with Tucker. Well he knew of my intentions, and trotted to the back of the house and disappeared in his pen. (We keep the 2 other dogs in a set of pens, and Sam has one where he gets fed and sometimes he hangs around in there.) Frustrated that it was taking me half an hour to get my ride started, I went inside and explained the situation to Momma. She went out to get Sam and off I went. Finally!

NOW I was free. I went into Middle Bull, as usual. I kind of like to mix things up occasionally, but for the most part I have a routine. Some might find this boring, but I find it everything but. Sure it's the same old path but I know it well, know there are no holes or spooky objects along the way, and I can let my mind wander as we go. So off we went, and when we topped the hill near the water tank, I noticed a small group of the roping steers in the pasture.

There was one lone steer. Seperated. All by himself. Defenseless.

Bwaha.

I eased up to him, and we kind of danced around with him for a few minutes, but then he really hit it and took off and I knew that bareback, there was no way I could stay on without much of a struggle. Like I said, Wyatt goes into "cow mode" and it's a rather scary thing bareback. It's a thrill, but I didn't want to come flying off. So I used alot of strength on the reins to hold Wyatt back, and we moved on down the other side of the hill towards the water trough.

Remember how I told you there are always antelope there? Well, yep, there was. But there was only one buck. And he was coming towards me, and determined to go that way, and it didn't really strike my fancy to come running back the way I had just come. Plus, it's not quite as much fun to chase one as a whole herd. Then I noticed that in the next pasture just across the fence was an entire herd, and he was heading towards those. Well, it did cross my mind to go into that pasture and chase the herd, but they were heading into thick brush, and I was just too lazy to go in there. So we just kind of loped back around and did our little loop, and ended up back at the house. Which may sound kind of silly, but hey, I like my little routine. I know which pastures are fun to ride in and which aren't that much fun, and well now I'm rambling. So ANYWAY we went into South Bull, which is, as you may have guessed, just South of Middle Bull. We went through there, and when we hit the fence, headed West till we hit the gate going into Long Trap.

I think I mentioned this in a recent post, but I always love to come into this pasture and lope home, because on the East fence is a wide, red dirt path free of brush and it's good dirt, not hard packed, like the roads. If I ride Wyatt too much on the roads, it will chip his hooves. So eyah we loped home, and that was my... Oh it was about a 2 hour ride I guess, not incredibly long, but I did enjoy it.

So I just spent an entire post babbling on about a boring horseback ride. Sorry to bore you. I'll go now. And return later with something more interesting.

If you're lucky.