I went riding Saturday with Tracey, Anita and Robin. The sun was out and the air was cool so the horses felt good. We did a lot of moving out with a little walking in between. You see, I rode with three Arabs and they have a little more stamina than my poor ol' TWH who has been on vacation for the past 5 weeks. Anyway, Summer kept up pretty good with the others, I was real proud of her. She didn't care if she was in front, middle or in back. She just kept going. We even got some real nice cantering in. She is really learning how to use those legs of hers. She used to feel like you were riding an octopus when she tried to canter, legs going every which way. Well, on our second good canter episode, Summer was in the lead and Anita and Tiny were right behind me, Summer thought she saw a bear and spooked real hard to the left, throwing me out of my seat but not off the horse. However, I saw out of the corner of my eye, something hit the ground. I turned fully around and saw Anita on her back. Apparently, Tiny believed Summer when Summer said she thought she saw a bear and Tiny startled too. But Tiny was a good girl and stood there for Anita to get back up. Luckily Anita wasn't hurt and sat there for a minute to gather her wits then got back on and we rode off again. Of course I felt horrible, had Summer not startled, Tiny wouldn't have startled. I am just glad she wasn't hurt. That first loop was 18 miles, it was great, and other than the "bear", Summer was wonderful.
We got back to the trailers, ate, and visited for awhile, then got back on the horses to do the little 4 mile trail (2 out and 2 back). Well, we took a wrong turn about a mile out. There were ribbons on the trail we turned onto. We all saw them, and all agreed we were on the right trail. There were no ribbons we could see on the actual trail. Anyway, we get to a "fence". It is the thick gauged cable that prevents vehicles from going where they shouldn't. This one was at the end of the cut trail and was only about 2 inches of the ground. We have all asked our horses to go over something like this before. Well, Anita and Robin go over it and Tracey is next with me in the rear. Amira goes over it with all feet, as her right rear hoof starts to go over, it catches the cable. Amira takes another step, now the cable is a little higher up on her leg and she starts to panic and kicks out trying to get free, this only causing the cable to loop around her leg, then the poor thing starts to go down and Tracey bails off so Amira can free herself. When she frees herself, she takes off. This was De-Ja-Vue (sp?). 14 years ago, Fawtal got loose at Benbrook lake and took off. I remembered what we did to keep him with my friends horse and it worked with Amira too. Well, I keep "cookies" in my saddle pack and Amira knows it. So I got off of Summer, took out the bag of cookies and Amira settled and came right over to me. Thank God. I know how Tracey felt watching her baby run loose with paved road around and such, she could have ran anywhere. It happened with Fawtal and Summer and it is a horrible feeling of helplessness. Well, Amira has some wounds, and is limping, but I really believe she will be fine, it could have been so much worse.
Other than our two accidents, the horses were actually on their best behavior. Other than acting like a horse every now and then (slight spooking due to wind), they were really good.
Sunday we just rode around the barn yard for a couple of miles. I wanted Summer to loosen her muscles after her previous days work out. I put her out next to a colt and they ran and played through the fence, so I knew she felt pretty good if she felt like playing.
As for today, I get a phone call from my husband who says he found a job. I didn't know he was looking. He could go to Iraq as a mechanic on a military base for $30,000 a month. Yes, that's what I said, $30,000 a month. He would be there a year and bring home, tax free, $360,000. I was so upset. I hated when we were apart while he was in the Army. We are older now and more settled, I really don't think I could handle not having him around. I know what he is thinking. We could buy the property and house we want right now and still have money left over. But I just don't know what I would do not having him around. I actually started crying just thinking about it. Money is nice, but it isn't everything. However, I have always supported him in his decisions, so we will talk more tonight.
TTFN
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