Back In The Saddle Again.....

[sheepdog 10]

Last week a friend of mine went on a horse camping trip with another friend of hers, and she needed me to handle a doggie problem for her while she was gone, so I took care of that for her, we kinda swap help, sometimes when I go on vacation I have to have her come over here and give puppy shots, or something, since my regluar helpers aren't exactly qualified to handle that. Anyway, when she got back I mentioned that sometime if she wanted somebody to go riding with her I'd sure like to go, like to think I'd get another chance at riding before I die of old age. It's been pretty close to 20 years since I've been on a horse. I can't believe it's been that long, but that's got to be pretty close. I used to practicly live on horseback, used to take care of what was more or less a dude ranch, and I broke and trained all the colts that were born there, besides training all my own horses over the years. So, today she called and said she and her friend were going riding Thursday and invited me to come along. I'm pretty excited about it. Told her I wanted to make it a fairly short ride, since I suspect it will be about impossible for me to walk for a few days afterwords, but I'm really looking forward to it anyway. Wish me luck!

Edited September 19, 2011 by sheepdog (see edit history)

[sheepdog 10]

How can a day that starts off so fantastic turn so horribly wrong? Ok, the ride part turned out great! I REALLY enjoyed it. Felt so good to be on horseback again. There was one slight problem though, that I never even thought about, never had even an inkling that it would occur. The thought never crossed my mind. After we got them saddled up before we trailered them to where we would be riding, I wanted to get on to check the stirup length. Imagine my shock and suprise when I couldn't get my fat rear end up and on the horse! Took every ounce of strength I had and a push from my buddy to manage to get on. If ever I had any inspiration to go on a diet, that was sure it! After that shocking revolation, for just the briefest moment while I was sitting there looking down on the mare's ears, maybe 5 seconds, I had this little panic attack. All that went threw my mind is "what the hell do I think I'm doing?" I suppose it was just related to the shock of the discover that I couldn't even manage to get on the critter to start with. When we got where we were going to ride, I found a big rock and jumped on with no problem, and no further panic attacks either. It just felt good and right. The other amazing thing was the way riding took my mind off of every other thing in the world. My mind never strayed not for one single second on anything that was going on at home or the million other things that I should of been doing other that riding a horse. Part of that was due to concentrating on the horse and what she was doing. In all the years I have rode, I had never in my life rode a gaited horse. I've always had "cowboy" horses, Appaloosa or Quarter horses. This was a Fox Trotter. I learned that Fox Trotters don't naturaly fox trot on their own, you have to push them to the right speed and gait with just the right combination of urging them forward with your heels and gentle preasure back on the reins to keep them from just bouncing along in a fast, bone jaring trot. Since I had never experienced the feel of a fox trot, it took some concentration to feel when she was doing it right, and keep her at that pace. It's actually a bit tricky. Especially when trail riding in the woods, on rocky ground and up and down hills, and when the horse sometimes in the lead is a Pasa Fina, which has and entirly different gait and optimum speed of gate that does not match the fox trot. But all in all, it went really well. My legs were really tired and the muscles were actually quivering when I tried to walk. I had really thought that the next day I wouldn't even be able to get out of bed. But I ended up hardly sore at all to speak of. Not nearly as bad as I expected I would be. But that could of been because I walked out all the sorness that night not going to bed like I certainly would of liked to since I haven't been sleeping good and was totally exhausted, but instead finding myself walking back and forth in and out of the ER. And to the end of my day. Hubby has been sick for a couple weeks now. But that night about 10:30 or so he just kept getting worse and worse, so I ended up making a trip to the hospital emergency room with him. He ended up being admitted to the hospital where he spent the next 3 days. The ER doctor was talking about congestive heart failure, which scared the crap out of me. He has been having a hard time breathing, and then the past few days before going to the hospital, he started swelling really bad around his feet and ankles. He had retained so much water that his heart was having a hard time working. They never really did know what caused the problem, wether the lungs not working right cause the heart to act up, or the heart not working causing his lungs to fill up with fluid. They pumped him full of antibiotic, lasix, and steriods. He is a lot better now thank god. Needless to say, it has been a couple of really rough days. Last time he was in the hospital, he almost quit smoking, but said when he got home the smell of smoke in the house got him started again. So I made up my mind that I wasn't going to let him use that for an excuse this time. I have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned somemore. Even rented a steam cleaner for the carpets, and have been working on washing down the painted walls. The old curtains are in the trash, along with my old couch. After I picked him up yesterday at the hospital, we went over to a big flea market that normally has a lot of furnature, and found a couch, but while we were there we found a really nice new bad with a good foam type mattress, which we probably needed worse than a couch, but anway, we bought both, and today have to take the trailer back to pick them up. It will be nice to have the house looking fit for human habitation again.

[sheepdog 10]

Ok, that's really strange, why was your reply deleted? It wasn't offensive or anything, I did get a chance to read it before it was deleted, just didn't have time at that moment to reply back.

[sheepdog 10]

Got my pictures from the friend I went riding with and there is actually one I believe I can share of me on a horse with everybody here at Xisto. So then you will know why I get along so well with horses, my hair looks like a hay stack! At least my butt is not quite as wide as the horses!We were riding down on the semi famous Glade Top Trail. It's a large public use area with lots of trails for both cars and horses and ATV's. It has roads all threw it and small parking and picnicking areas scattered all threw it, usually positioned at exceptionally nice viewing spots. There is an anual event, usually sometime this month to view the "Flaming Fall Review" on the Glade Top Trail. They organize drives thew the area, and I believe they also have a big fund raising bar B que for one of the area organizations. We went riding a good bit before the real bright fall colors were getting started, but you can still see some, and the view is really nice. The Missouri Fox Trotting horse association had just had their anual trail ride threw the Glad Top about a week or so before we went riding. They had gone threw and made sure all the trails were clear and open before their big ride so when we went the trails were still very nice and open. People seem to be very respectful of the area. I didn't see a candy bar wrapper or beer can anywhere along the trails. That is certainly nice!

[velma 6]

Anyway, when she got back I mentioned that sometime if she wanted somebody to go riding with her I'd sure like to go, like to think I'd get another chance at riding before I die of old age. It's been pretty close to 20 years since I've been on a horse. I can't believe it's been that long, but that's got to be pretty close. I used to practicly live on horseback, used to take care of what was more or less a dude ranch, and I broke and trained all the colts that were born there, besides training all my own horses over the years.

You must be really lucky to be able to raise colts, I absolutely love horses and have broken in my uncle's mare(she was 14 hands) but I was supervised, that's about all the horse training I've done I could probably own a hundred gerbils but that could never match one handsome horse

since I suspect it will be about impossible for me to walk for a few days afterwords, but I'm really looking forward to it anyway. Wish me luck!

Ha ha ha ha! I know, I remember having the gait of a chimp since I could not move various body parts without cringing. I honestly prefer a gait to a pacer, my uncle's mare was a natural pacer which I realized after I rode her >_< . In one of the horse shows I've been to, I had the privilege of riding a Marwari horse , beautiful grand breed. This is a breed always ready to do as told(willingless to perform) and very easy to lead, that ride has been the best ride of my life. It felt like I was on an Ikran(Avatar reference )

OMG! How is your husband doing now? Hopefully he hasn't had a second episode like this. Sounds scary to find a loved one like this... It is really good he quit smoking and congrats on your effort in keeping him clean That is an awesome picture sheepdog, don't worry about the hair or the derriere, you look nice So would you be participating in any future horse meets? I think you should. Do you have a picture of the trotter? I would very much like to see him

[sheepdog 10]

Hubby was better, thanks for asking. Except now both of us are down with the flu, or some such thing. I just barely could get out of bed yesterday, felt like I'd been beat with a stick. Don't know if I'll get to do any more riding or not, hopefully we will.