We anticipated it was going to rain and scheduled the trail ride for 10:30 am. My and Arzaana-fay's horse's were, like they ourselves, gentle and docile creatures who took direction and did as they were told. Gary's horse, Gunsmoke, tolerated Gary for about half an hour and then began to adopt his personality traits.
At one point Gunsmoke decided we were clearly lost and he needed to be the lead horse and lead us out of the woods. He began pushing his way to the front of the line. Gary was forced to assert his will over Gunsmoke and not just reprove "whoa," and released his death grips on the front and back of the saddle to pick up the reins and pull. Sadly, he pulled too hard on on the right just as Gunsmoke was passing what could have been interpreted as a horse off-ramp. On the right. Gunsmoke took the off-ramp, which was sort of a path, perhaps for small bunnies, up a hill. The horse bolted up the hill as if to stay "These women are crazy. They don't know where they're going. Gary knows where to go. Let's take this bunny trail." Gary stayed on and found himself at the top of the hill being slapped in the face by small trees.
Arzaana-fay and I stayed at the bottom and skillfully convinced their horses that Gunsmoke and Gary were crazy. Luckily, with three people riding the trail the park provide two professional riders, one in the front (Erin, whose job it is to stay and say "Good job. Just stay here. Hold her, she'll want go up there.") and one in the back (Emily, whose job it is to gallop up the hill and say "No - don't pull so - hard - see - Gunsmoke will rear back - no - oh!") and then make eye contact with Gunsmoke and leap off her horse and grab the reins. Then Gary and Gunsmoke were lead down the path by the 90 pound Emily while her horse stood at the top of the hill. As Gary said, she could tell if he got off the horse he wasn't getting back on.
Recent Comments