timbo
Well-known member
Ever notice when you have what seemed like a good idea at the time turns out not to be such a good idea when you're in the middle of it? Don't ya just hate that?
My wife and I were looking to buy two more horses so that, when someone or family wanted to visit, we could go trail riding. We are looking for horses that are pretty much bombproof, i.e anyone can ride regardless of skill level. We had appointments to look at two horses on Saturday. The first horse was a dapple red quarterhorse that looked kind of old and mellow. According to the owners, their kids rode him all the time. I saddled him up to ride, led him to the round pen, and swung into the saddle. I got situated in the saddle, my feet in the stirrups, and squeezed my legs to get him going. He started walking slowly, seemed pretty mellow, so I squeezed again to get him to go just a little bit faster. That's when it got interesting. He lowered his head and started bucking. I stuck to the saddle pretty good on the first three, the fourth buck some air got between me and the saddle, and on the fifth I was airborne. As I'm flying about ten feet in the air, the thought occurs to me (somewhere between the thoughts of "oh Sh!!" and "This is gonna hurt," that I should have let one of the owners ride the horse before I got on. The second thing I learned was, I don't bounce like I used to. I just land with a thud, kinda like what mud does when you throw it against concrete. I told the owner that getting thrown was pretty much a deal breaker
My wife and I were looking to buy two more horses so that, when someone or family wanted to visit, we could go trail riding. We are looking for horses that are pretty much bombproof, i.e anyone can ride regardless of skill level. We had appointments to look at two horses on Saturday. The first horse was a dapple red quarterhorse that looked kind of old and mellow. According to the owners, their kids rode him all the time. I saddled him up to ride, led him to the round pen, and swung into the saddle. I got situated in the saddle, my feet in the stirrups, and squeezed my legs to get him going. He started walking slowly, seemed pretty mellow, so I squeezed again to get him to go just a little bit faster. That's when it got interesting. He lowered his head and started bucking. I stuck to the saddle pretty good on the first three, the fourth buck some air got between me and the saddle, and on the fifth I was airborne. As I'm flying about ten feet in the air, the thought occurs to me (somewhere between the thoughts of "oh Sh!!" and "This is gonna hurt," that I should have let one of the owners ride the horse before I got on. The second thing I learned was, I don't bounce like I used to. I just land with a thud, kinda like what mud does when you throw it against concrete. I told the owner that getting thrown was pretty much a deal breaker
