More ridin!

Today I rode Tammy's $250 walking horse stud. He's black, 3, and has no papers, but he's a pretty good little guy. He really wanted to drop and holler at mares, but I informed him that if he tried it I'd kill him, so he behaved himself. He gaits, quite naturally! Not pacey at all, and he was only wearing keg shoes in the front. He tripped a lot, but he's a young TWH with shoes on; that's what they do. Doesn't steer worth a shit and doesn't rate his speed very well, but he doesn't buck or bite and he only cost $250. They got a steal. I hope they geld him, but I'm pretty sure they won't.

Then James came out so we went trail riding. I got to ride Rascal again and he rode SSB. SSB (Spotted Saddle Bitch) is Lily's half-sister, a black and white tobiano sabino (is there a stupid made-up word for that?). She is, as her name implies, a raging bitch. Jody owns her but doesn't really trust her, so James is riding her out for Jody. She's kinda halfass green broke and very pacey, but if anybody can fix her, James can.

Rascal was apparently just feeling lazy or indulgent Sunday. Today he actually tested me, the whole ride. It was fun. He pulled like a pack of huskies, he thought about cantering, about rearing, about bucking, about spooking at logs. When he wasn't being wicked, he was absolutely blazing along, perfectly square, stepping as high as anybody could want.

Rascal is FAST. I knew that before - Rascal can rack as fast as Champ canters. I finally got to ride that hella-fast rack. We fought the whole time on the trail about how fast he'd get to go - I didn't want to run off and leave James behind on the slow baby horse. And we had a major disagreement when we turned in the driveway to the barn. He wanted to completely ignore me and rack his happy ass straight to his stall, but I made him go in the arena. Then I made him follow James and SSB around for about five laps. James took SSB back outside the arena and I decided to see how fast Rascal would go without breaking his gait so we just zoomed around about three more laps til all of a sudden he asked to slow down. So we did!

It was really cool.

I rode in yet another horrible saddle. Better than the other two, but still not as good as my own wonderful saddle. I need to go get my saddle from my dad's barn and let it live in my truck, I suppose. What I really need is a saddle rack in my truck... hmmm....