Rescue Volunteer

November 7, 2019Posted inMiscellaneous
I was a rescue volunteer for wrecked truck towing a trailer with one horse inside.   Car driver put on turn signal about a minute before he braked and slowed down.  Truck and trailer behind could not stop.  I probably drove by about 5 minutes after the wreck.  I beat the emergency responders.  Glass and broken stuff all over the road. I was on my way to ride Fancy.  Instead I stopped and asked if a trailer was needed for his horse.  He hesitated, looked at me in my bright yellow Parelli sweatshirt with a huge horse…

Fancy’s Spur Refinement Horsemanship Lesson

October 31, 2019Posted inFancy
Early Susan spur rule, in effect at least 18 years before Fancy was born:  Don’t use spurs until you can ride bareback with spurs. Translation into English:  Humans should not achieve balance while riding by holding on with the legs and feet.  When becoming unbalanced on a horse, one should not clamp the horse’s body with a spur death grip.  It might end in a condition called run-away-horse-dumped-rider. Your favorite rider, me, adhered to that rule. Fancy is much more advanced in her spur rule:  “Do not touch me with your spurs.”  She is teaching me…

Bit and Spurs

October 14, 2019Posted inFancy
Fancy is the age to graduate from a snaffle bit and go into a curb bit. I have been setting up the Wonder bit as a snaffle. Today I changed where the rein fits on the bit and poof, she is wearing a curb bit. Yee Haw! I self-graded C- to C at keeping my one hand grip on the reins. It’s very tough to cast aside one entire arm. The used arm gets upset as it is being asked to perform precision light handling of the horse’s mouth through…