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GentlewoodFarms
September 21, 2017

AGC #21 ~ What I Wore

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Ok. So a dirty pair of pants and a pair of boots. What's so special about those that they were worth photographing? Well, I'll tell you if you have a second....

As many of you know, I made the decision to put my finished dressage mare down last month due to lameness issues that we could not get corrected. It was sad - partly because it was just sad, but the other partly because she was my RIDING horse.

My other horse - Java - is very special to me. To start with, she was orphaned at 12 hours old. I raised her on a bucket and with the help of a great foster mare, she grew up well adjusted and unspoiled - she really loves people and she especially loves me. Secondly, she's the one of only two babies by my stallion - whom I campaigned at the national level to a fourth place national status in hunter stallions before he died of liver cancer at age 4. So, yes, she's very special, but she is NOT a finished riding horse. She has ... issues.

The biggest issue is her smarts. She has too many of them. And she's ... well, she's just bossy. Since she was three days old she's been bossy. It's her inborn nature to be "in charge" of whatever situation she is in. Which makes her tough to ride because it's ALWAYS a discussion.

First - in her defense, she's a GREAT trail horse. It keeps her attention and she loves to get in the trailer and go places. She loves going first down the trail - which is unusual in a horse. Most of them are kind of chicken hearted, but Java is brave. Actually, Java is practically fearless.

But she does NOT like lessons because she HATES arena work. She gets bored easily, and she doesn't really particularly care about being better under saddle than she is. She does not WANT to bend or GIVE or COLLECT or any of the things that make a horse a pleasure to ride. She wants to FUSS and ARGUE and occasionally BUCK. Not mean spirited kind of stuff, just bossy kind of stuff that makes it clear what her opinion is about making a perfect 20 meter circle yet AGAIN.

So here's the thing about these pants and these boots.

FIrst - I buried my old riding boots with Dolce. She and I and those boots traveled miles together and they were in the same kind of shape as she was. It was time to bury them too. My husband, however, knew that for me to not have riding boots was kind of like me not getting enough oxygen. So he got me new boots for my birthday. And I expect that Java and I will ride many miles in them before they are worn out. I expect that they will be well broken in when it's time to retire them... I expect to be about 75 by then.

The pants -- whole 'nuther story. I NEVER - NEVER - ride Java unless there is plenty of leather between her and me. I need something to grab onto should she get a notion in her head - which she often does. But tonight - something just clicked between us. It was unbelievable, and for the first time in the six years that I've been riding her, she finally seemed to "get it." And she was soft, and she was fluid, and she was agreeable, and for the last half of my lesson, it felt like I was riding Dolce again.

I cannot explain it. It was surreal. But when it was time to cool her out, I stripped her saddle, jumped on her bareback and we just walked around and relaxed until she was cool enough to get her hosed down and loaded in the trailer to go home. My pants - that's just good old dried Java sweat on the butt seat of my britches. And I cannot tell you how great that makes me feel.

Tomorrow - well, tomorrow, she'll probably be back to her old self, but for this one night ... I remember what it felt like to fly again.


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