You never know when it's coming

The most “bombproof” horse in the world can have a moment when something scares the dickens out of it. I think about this possibility every time I tack up my horse. I check my tack, keep it supple and in good condition. If I see a crack in a rein I replace the rein immediately. When I was younger I was careful, but not as attentive to my gear as I am now. I am 60 and I really don’t want to come off my horse at all these days, and I especially don’t want a problem due to equipment failure.

It is Thursday and so far this winter I have ridden with my friend Wayne on an adventure to a place where either he or I haven’t been every Thursday, no matter how cold or windy it is. Yesterday it snowed in the mountains here, and when I woke up this morning it was a brisk 26 degrees with a blustery wind. In Arizona these conditions are considered extreme cold! I am from Vermont, so I know how to layer to stay warm in the worst of conditions. I thought about calling to cancel, but I had already pushed back our meeting time an hour due to the cold and I didn’t want to be the wuss that cancelled. So I layered up. Silk long underwear top, a thin cashmere sweater, a not too bulky but dense wool sweater over that topped with a vest. Silk long john bottoms, and windproof fleece riding britches that have a deerskin full seat. I headed to the barn and had my tack all pulled out and was about to go get Minnie when my phone rang. It was Wayne, he suggested that we could cancel - even though he had teased me for pushing the time back yesterday. I believe he said “Are you from Hawaii? I thought you said you are from Vermont!” Ha! After a few minutes discussing the wind we decided to go ahead and ride and if it was too miserable we would just turn back. We had planned to go to the southern end of the San Pedro River, but there was a layer of dense fog hanging all along the river bottom, so we left it that we would just ride out and see what felt right.

After tacking up I headed out the driveway and across the field to meet him. I could see him on the other side of the field coming toward us at a trot. I thought that Minnie saw them as well, at one point she had put up her head and looked across the field and she was walking quietly. I was wrong apparently. As they came closer her head went up as though a monster was rushing toward her. She did an amazing 180 degree roll back and catapulted into a blistering gallop toward home. I dusted off my one rein stop I hadn’t used in decades and with both hands on one rein reeled her head in toward my left leg. She didn’t stop right away, she turned into a series of four at least 10 foot sideways leaps before she came to a stop - and miraculously I was still in the saddle.

So here’s the good news. She did not at any point try to get me off. She was just terrified. If she had thrown a buck or three in that blistering gallop I would have had a hard time staying organized enough to do the one rein stop. In the midst of the sideways leaps I did consider trying to bail out briefly, but the chances of getting hurt were much greater if I had tried to bail out. So I stuck it out and was ready to kick away the stirrups if I had to come off. Can I just say how much I love full seat riding pants? They are one of the reasons I was able to ride this out. If I had been in slippery jeans there is no way I would have stayed on. She was leaping too fast sideways. The grip of the leg of my pants was what barely kept me with her. Another piece of gear that played a huge role is I had put the Safe Riders Gear Air Pad on her and that kept the saddle from slipping to the side when I had all of my weight on the left stirrup doing the one rein stop through the sideways leaps.

Once she stopped I pointed her toward Wayne and his horse. She realized that it was them and settled down after a few high headed minutes. Of course our little rodeo got Wayne’s horse Heidi riled up and Heidi threatened to act up a few times as we got going. He mentioned that she had thrown a couple bucks as he entered the field, so it really was that kind of a day!

We decided to head down toward the Mexican border and ride the border road to the river to see if we could get to the riverbed. We followed a trail down to the border road and passed a border patrol vehicle along the way. We gave a wave as we passed him. Otherwise all was quiet along the border. To our surprise the cattle guard blocking the river was filled in with sand on one side so we were able to walk right over it and get down to the river. There were cows on Mexico side of the border and a couple of deer leapt across the road a distance in front of us. The horses noticed both but weren’t concerned. We crossed the river which was shallow but has several pieces of loose wire laying in the crossing, so we had to watch where they were putting their feet. Once on the other side we rode a mile or two along the border wall to where we could see an old adobe ranch on the Mexico side that we had both been curious about. It appeared to be abandoned, but once must have been a large ranch. The border wall cut pieces of the ranch in half, there are partial corrals on the USA side and the remains of the rest of the corrals on the Mexico side. The ranch buildings all are on the Mexico side and they look quite old.

I didn’t get any pictures of the ranch or the river, between the cows on the left and a couple of odd pieces of equipment on the right I had to stay focused on Minnie' and where her thoughts were directed. She had her eye on the fields to our right, and I am sure she was hearing deer in there.

We cut down a long steep hill into the wash on our way back, and flushed a deer in the bottom of the wash, but the horses were not worried at that point, they were getting tired, we were almost home and it had warmed up a bit.

You just never know when your tack and your horsemanship skills are going to be tested. The tack and gear did what it was supposed to do. I imagine I might be sore tomorrow, I used my muscles today in ways I don’t usually need to. I am grateful that I was able to get her turned and stopped on her first time being frightened to that extent. She has never blown out and bolted before, so this was a first for us as a team. Wayne had good instincts on whether we should have gone out at all on this blustery day, and if there is a time that I have a feeling we should cancel, I will have no qualms about making that call.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!