I Rode Spook & Ebony For The First Time!

I had a dream about riding Spook across the open range next to our place. Up to this point, I'd been rather intimidated by all these horses. My excuse being "I haven't ridden a horse in almost 2o years". Well in my dream, I was able to ride Spook without any trouble at all. Over the past few weeks, I had acquired some tack... a saddle, blanket, bridle, etc. I had decided that I really wanted to ride "without" using a bit. I never have been a real fan of bits. I know I sure wouldn't want a bit in my mouth and I kind of figured that horses don't much like it either.

Anyway back to my dream, I finally mustered up the courage on December 31, 2007 to saddle up Spook and "ride her". It wasn't the first time I'd saddled her. I've done that a few times in the past. She always stood calmly while being saddled and she'd allowed me to lead her around with some weight in the saddle. (I put some corn bags in the legs of some old jeans to use as my "fake" person) Once before I tried to ride Spook but I hadn't tightened the cinch tight enough and the saddle went under her as I tried to mount up and she didn't like that one bit! I ended up slipping to the ground and Spook trotted off while making a few small kicks and crow hops trying to dislodge the saddle now hanging underneath her.

So not wanting to repeat my last mistake with the saddle, I asked Don to help me get her saddled up and we took her into our round pen and he held onto the opposite side stirrup while I got on a chair and then hopped into the saddle. I'm sure it surely seemed unorthodox to Spook but she was a real trooper and allowed me to plop down on her. I really expected her to bolt or balk or something. But she didn't.. she just stood there until I urged her to walk forward. And she did everything I asked her to do! I was ecstatic! I rode her around the round pen for several minutes using only a halter with reins clipped onto it to guide her. It was fun!

So after my ride on Spook, I decided I'd do the same on Ebony. I started in the round pen and was feeling pretty confident, so I asked Don to open the gate and headed for the "south 40".

I had a great time riding Ebony around the property and after about an hour, I decided it was time to call it a day. I was concerned about Ebony's bad knee becoming swollen. So I headed her back home. Don wasn't anywhere around so I figured I'd have to dismount on my own. What a bad decision that was. I rode Ebony up next to an overturned half barrel and as I jumped off trying to land on the barrel, I lost my balance and pulled the saddle off sideways with me.

OH NO! NOT AGAIN! The same thing had happened to Spook while in the round pen but this time Ebony managed to escape out of the round pen and she took off running with the saddle dangling underneath her. She ran around the property for 5 to 10 minutes. I tried to slow her down to no avail. Finally she slowed down enough for me to grab the reins and get her stopped. But she was now limping badly and had several cuts and scratches from the barbed wire fence she'd run into.

Brenda and Steve saw the commotion and came running to give us some assistance but by the time they got here, I had managed to get her stopped.

Boy I felt terrible about this poor mare getting injured because of my stupidity. It's a good thing you don't need a license to own and ride a horse cause I'd surely have failed the test that day.

It's been a couple of weeks now since the incident with Ebony and she seems to have recovered ok. Her knee is still swollen but she's not limping anymore and her cuts have healed ok.