Yahoo, I am a real cowgirl now!!

Kids are all grown, have horse girlfriends that I ride with.  We are all quarter horse people so started  trail ridng on quarter horses.  Finally learned it would be a lot nicer to have gaited.  So we all got gaited horses.  Young gaited horses.  We wanted 2 to 3 year olds so they would not have any bad habits or injuries.  We tend to keep our horses forever.  So the story begans,  We were at a very mountainous trail ride.  This was about my third ride on my new 3 year old spotted saddle horse Lilly.  I did not have alot of cofidence in her yet.  But she was going with the flow very nicely.  We had about 5 young horses on this trail ride.  We were all along the side of a mountain just enough room to easly walk your horse.  But not to turn around.  The side of the trail went straight down with a mud creek at the bottom and the other side went up on a steep slant.  I was last in line.  The leader usually takes a older trail horse but it so happened today she did not. 

All at once all the horses stopped.  Making all the horses very nervous.  The leader could not get her horse to go over the bridge to cross the mud creek.  No one could pass her either.  We were all in a pickle.  I decided to back my horse up to a bigger pathway.  Lilly took the message as a turn around instead of a back.  I remember thinking "oh no, I am glad i have my helmet on"  Her front feet went off of the path and she started sliding straight down. I gave her the reins and I fell up over the saddle horn and just hung on the best I could.  She ever so gently slid down the side of the mountain.  Jumped the muddy creek.  When she jumped the creek I ended up back in the saddle.  Got my sense about me and hung on for dear life and she went up the other side with ease.  I can remember looking at my girlfriends faces.  There faces were expressions of oh no, there is nothing we can to to help you.  You are going to fall.  Well, I do not know how I did not fall off.  But this gaited horse was so smooth and sure footed that I had no problem staying in the saddle once I got back on the seat.  After we got up the mountain I was so excited that I stayed on I felt like the man from snowy river.  LOL  Figured if I could stay on after all of that I was finally a real cowgirl.  LOL  Lilly and I bonded right then and there.  I never doubted her trust or ability after that ride.  She is the best horse I have ever had and will retire here.  Ihave a colt from her that is ready to break so I will start riding him and give her a break and let my grandchildren play on her. 

Anyone else have some hair raising experiences, good experiences of just fun experiences.?

Andrea,

Oh my goodness!!!  I would have been scared to death!!  Thank goodness for the surefootedness of your horse!!

I was outside the other day playing with my 2 horses.  My mare looks at me like I'm a lunatic and my gelding runs around showing off.  What a different attitude they both have.

I'm going to attach a picture or link, or however it works!  We were having FUN!!!!

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I am out with my husband and two no-horsey people on my 3 yr old Colty at the time.  It is his first real ride and we are hunting a missing bull on about 2000 acres.  Colty has done real well and we are headed back to meet up with the other pair.  We make our way through a patch of saplings and Colty begins to buck!  I steer him to an open spot and try to pull him up.  I pull his head around and we begin spinning around and around.  Colty spins himself into the ground.  He is laying there gathering himself and my cell phone begins to ring.  Not wanting to spook him further, I answer it.  My husband asks where we are at and I tell him calmly and hang up.  Colty soon gathers his composure and stands up.  He is still agitated and I dismount and check his belly for thistles or burrs (maybe on got caught in his sheath, girth, ????)  I unsaddle and check all tack.  Nothing.  I re-saddle, re-mount, and calmly continue with the ride.  He never acted up again.  Although he was a little spent.  I asked my riding partner if she saw what set him off - No.  I checked him head to toe when I got home and found Nothing.  Maybe a bee sting?  A sapling poked him?   Anyway, it was an absurd position, answering the phone in a situation like that.  Any other horse but Colty I would have thought it was orneriness or spookiness, but Colty had and always has been a real solid horse.

"Anyone else have some hair raising experiences, good experiences of just fun experiences.?"

Not nearly as exciting as that one! Woo Hoo What a Ride!

Last weekend I visited a friend's barn for the first time, met her horse, and a couple of her women friends.  It was a fairly nice day (not raining!) and the four of us were walking around the grounds, watching the horses in their paddocks.  A newer horse in the barn was really enjoying himself that day.  Diesel is a 3 y.o. Clydesdale, still kinda gangly, and he was rumbling up and down his paddock at a trot (the earth shook!), then he laid down and rolled for a while, then got up and took off at a nice canter.  Of course, he had to throw in the occasional buck/kick out.  Somehow his antics fired up a few of the horses paddocked around him, and they all started prancing and acting silly.  Very cool and fun to watch, and especially with people who were getting the same kind of enjoyment out of it!  Simple, horse-related pleasures can be the best.

Mary