“Sailor” was my first horse. Erik picked him out despite my protests that I wanted to wait on getting a horse.
I loved Sailor to death, and cried for weeks when I finally sold him. He was an awesome friend, but we got-off on the wrong foot, and would never be able to handle him correctly from there on out. We’d been told he was 6 years old, greenbroke, only to spend an entire year trying to TEACH him how to ride effectively and find out he was a 23 yr old ex-rodeo horse.
And so, here is an excerpt from my book on why I have a hard time convincing myself to get on ANY horse. Despite these events, I still would get on Sailor bare back with halter.
November 29th, 2013
We had spent Thanksgiving the day before at Erik’s sister’s house. She had a huge feast with family and friends scattered all about the house. All of us pigged out – it was nice to have a good solid dinner for once! Earen of course was still too little to eat the meal, so I had brought along my homemade pureed carrots and banana. His family insisted he could eat mashed potatoes — although the small lump that he was given caused explosive diarrhea the next day due to the added butter and milk!
Erik had Friday off (a rare event for him since his work never let him take any of his vacation days they allowed him each year). The only days he was ever allowed to have off were the ones when the shop itself was closed for, so Erik was taking the opportunity to research tractors on his phone. Without looking up he said, “We should take the horses out today.”
I had been washing the breakfast dishes with my tiny bits of water and my bowl. I stopped and spun around to look at him. He had NEVER suggested we do something like that. “Really?”
Erik glanced up from his phone. “Yeah, why not? Are you scared of Sailor or something?”
“No, you just never asked me before. I’ve rode him around here a bit on my own. I’m not scared of him.”
“I never asked because we’ve got so much crap to get done around here. But now, we’ve gotten everything done outside and winter will be here soon. Today is nice and sunny so I’d like to get out and ride Ace. Not like the kids ever ride him.”
I was ecstatic! I’d finally be able to REALLY ride Sailor!
It was about noontime, and Earen was getting ready to wake-up from his morning nap, so I made Nuriel a bottle to give him when he woke up. She groaned, but took the bottle from me. I left her my cell phone so that she could call Erik if she had any questions.
IT TOOK US HALF AN HOUR TO GET THE HORSES READY.
Most likely one reason why I never bothered much with a saddle or bridle was that it cut into my work time with Sailor. We were both new to this, especially Erik who had very little experience with horses as a kid, so I ended up getting BOTH horses ready. I decided to do Ace first since Erik could ride him around a bit while I got Sailor ready. We used the back gate of his aluminum trailer to tie the horses to. Not the best or safest spot, but it was all we had.
Ace did great getting brushed and saddled, but would NOT take the bit. After struggling for 10 minutes with Erik getting frustrated waiting for me, I picked a handful of grass and held it behind the bit. Ace eagerly stuffed both bit and grass into his mouth, chewing happily while I seated the rest of his bridle and buckled it.
Next it was Sailor’s turn. He saddled fine, and even took the bit fine when I put his bridle on. But he seemed to be not liking the bit. He kept grinding and chewing on it, despite my several attempts to adjust it. Ace had always been ridden in a simple snaffle, so that’s what Sailor had now. The guy who had showed Sailor when I went to look at him, recommended a hackamore and a curb bit . . . a pretty harsh combo. I had no clue what a hackamore was, but we had bought a bucket of bits at a horse stable the summer prior so I could try various ones out. I decided on a loose ring snaffle, but it took me forever to get it onto the bridle and then we couldn’t figure out how to attach the reins since it was one big circle on each side (unlike a leverage bit which has separate holes for the reins and bridle).
It was quite likely I had done something incorrectly. Either saddle misplaced or wrong bit/installation. From the start, Sailor was not happy. He didn’t want to go on a ride, much less into the back hayfield. But being the dominant horse, he absolutely did not want Ace leading, so he out-walked Ace and went down the road path toward the back hayfield. And then he just stopped. Ace walked past him, Erik swung his body around as Ace walked by and stuck his tongue out at me.
I patiently nudged Sailor with my feet. Lightly, harder, harder, then kicking. He just pinned his ears back at me. I knew a stick would work to lightly tap him on the shoulder, but there were none nearby and it was a bit swampy where Sailor was standing, so dismounting meant soaking my cowboy boots (leftover from my mom). Erik finished the walk to the hayfield, then turned Ace around to look at us.
“Give him a good kick and let’s go!” Erik shouted. Ace stood patiently.
“Don’t you think I have?” I proceeded to kick him a few more times. Sailor turned his head to glare at me.
Erik walked Ace back to us then clipped his lead rope onto Sailors halter and held the other end of the rope to lead him while Ace walked ahead of Sailor. Sailor realized he had been outsmarted, AND that Ace was now the leader, so he decided to pick it up and out-walked Ace yet again. Now he was leading Erik.
“Suzanne! Slow him down!”
“I can’t! He’s not listening, and he just wants to be the leader. Just toss me your rope – I think he’s going to walk now.”
So Erik did, and I looped it around my saddle horn, and we continued walking around to the right of the hayfield. We had planned to try-out some of the trails in the woods. It was a beautiful day for the end of November. Sunny and fairly mild. I hoped for sake of living in the camper that it stayed this way – at least until our double-wide arrived!
It was my first real ride on Sailor. Little walks around the yard didn’t count. This was lovely! Sailor paused to dive for grass, letting Ace and Erik walk on ahead. I struggled to pull his head up, but now Erik was a hundred or so feet ahead of me. Sailor didn’t like that. Erik decided to start trotting Ace . . .
“Hon! Don’t trot, you’re too far ahead! You’re making Sailor nervous!”
Erik paid me no attention, and away he trotted. Horses tend to copy whatever the horse in front of them does, especially if their rider is less than skilled! I knew Sailor would begin trotting, so when he did I instantly pulled-back on the reins to slow him. Not that I didn’t want to trot, I just was exercising my choice in the matter. If we were going to trot it would be my idea, not his. I was going to cue him into a trot after he stopped . . . . but that was a bad idea . . . Sailor didn’t stop.
He ran.
He broke-out into a full out gallop and blasted past Erik who yelled at us to quit showing off. The ball cap hat I had been wearing flipped right-off my head. The more I pulled-back on the reins, the faster he went. He looped around the whole back of the hay field and was circling back toward the road to go home. This would mean going down a hill with a 45 degree angle . . . at top speed. I could hear the air whooshing past my ears like a train rushing down the tracks.
“I’m going to die.”
My feet had slipped out of the stirrups, and I locked my butt and legs down deep in my saddle, reins in one hand and the other hand clinging to the saddle horn. I tried to calm myself and think logically about what I was supposed to do in a situation like this. I’d read stories of people who practiced emergency dismounts. However, that seemed like a good way to break my legs jumping off or getting trampled. But I had also read about something else. A “one-rein turn”.
The hill was approaching quickly and I’d be down it (and probably maimed) in only a few seconds! I slid my right hand down and slowly pulled the right rein toward my thigh. Sailor’s route began to arc, but he was still running. I pulled the reign in more until his arc became tighter, and tighter and finally slowed to him touching his nose to my leg. I released the rein and he stood panting. He had this look of shock on his face and suddenly looked like a lost and scared child. My legs had turned to pudding and Erik came trotting up as I poured myself out of the saddle, spilling into a puddle on the ground. Erik walked up and dropped my hat in my face.
“You lost your hat. What the hell were you doing?! Did you mean to do that?!”
“NO! ARE YOU KIDDING!?” I said loudly, too shaken to even yell.
“Shit, Sailor was hauling-ass across this field! That horse is FAST! I can’t believe you didn’t fall-off! You didn’t have your feet in the stirrups, how’d you stay on?”
I lay there, staring up at the blue sky, watching wisps of clouds float past and birds dart by. “I don’t know. I just sat down into the saddle and locked my legs into it. It’s a great saddle though, I probably would not have managed with any other saddle!”
Erik hopped down and pulled me to my feet. “You gonna walk him home or ride him?”
I stroked Sailor’s light golden neck and he nuzzled me. “I think I’ll walk him down the hill, then get back on and ride the rest of the way home.”
Sailor did fine the rest of the way home. He walked quietly and calmly like nothing had ever happened.
But the incident shook me to my core. It would affect me mentally with riding horses for years to come.
Sailor with bling from new owner
