The teacher strikes again

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Annual Trail Rides 203/200 (Bareback 30/40)

Two interesting episodes happened over the last week that really challenged my perceptions. My teacher Q served my learnings quite effectively and have left me scratching my head as to when I imposed these self-limitations.

Episode 1: The Hunter

The Background

We have some interesting forest trails that are very narrow (sometimes 3 feet between 100 year old pine trees) and very bendy (sometimes turning 130 degrees around a tree). It makes for an interesting bend and yield exercise and these trails are often quite popular with the riders. Sometimes it is a great place to hide in the woods with very little traffic and zero sleighs/buggies. Occasionally there are deer hiding in there as well.

Some of my past horses were brilliant at trotting and cantering through these paths, and never gave my knees a moments worry. Some of these paths are worse (more narrow, more bends) than others. One particular trail #31 is the worst of them all. 

Some of my fellow riding buddies like to trot the #31. But not I. I hang back and let them do their thing while I walk through the deep bends. 

Q has not been the most reliable to listening to my leg cues when I want him to put his feet where he doesn't want to. He has an aversion to greasy footing, puddles and rotting ice. His go-to is to side step all that mess even if that means pushing my knee into a tree. Its happened more than once, and so Im not interested in doing a collision course with my knees.

I could fix it of course. It would mean some disciplined riding, some arena time, and maybe even some spurs. But Im not interested in fixing it. So I just continue to ignore the problem and when I need his attention, I pick up the reins, put the legs on and work extra hard at preventing him from bulging out at my leg to avoid the mud.

The Episode

So Im moving pretty fast down a very familiar wide trail when all of a sudden I see two fat bikes cross our path about 50 yards in front of me, and proceed to cross into the narrow web of trails. Fat bikes (or any bike) are absolutely not allowed on these trails but we often spot the occasional rogue in the fall or spring when the trails are less busy. They like to hide from us. Several altercations, some quite aggressive, have happened since 2020 on this trespassing, so I do not intend to confront.

But I do want photographic evidence.

I cross my reins into my left hand, pull my phone out of my right pocket, squeeze with my legs to engage "hunter mode" and off we go chasing the bikes while Im trying to unlock my phone and start the camera. 

The bikes turn down #31 and I follow suit. Trotting, weaving, trying to take pictures, and watching those 100 year old pine trees whiz by my knees without a worrying rub. The bikes hear me in pursuit and start moving faster. I start moving faster. I still don't have a picture.

And then, after a round of several big turns I lost them. No pictures.

The only picture I got was this blurry one.



But, now I know what we are capable of.

Episode 2: The Deer

The background

We see plenty of deer in the woods and the fields. Especially at this time of year. Q usually ignores them with the occasional ear prick. Sometimes he gets antsy if he is feeling particularly energetic or "sparkly" (my new favourite word). But he never ever bolts or spins because of deer. 

Sometimes we will be trotting or cantering down a path and a deer will dart across our path and Q will not even change strides. Deer don't bother him.

Ive also been working hard on my bareback skills and have definitely improved my confidence and balance, but Im still reluctant to canter as I get tight and start tipping over pretty fast. So Ive been working on trotting at different speeds and pushing my energy from my tight shoulders towards my belly button. Baby steps but Im seeing progress,

The episode

My end of year is in sight and I have some bareback rides to catch up on. Q was feeling particularly "sparkly" this week so I did some hard and fast saddled rides to get some of the squirrelly thoughts out of his head. But on this particular day I cracked out the bareback pad for a nice and quiet stroll with riding buddy L on the big tank QH/draft we call TJ. TJ is not very brave but when she is behind a solid horse she is as good as gold.

So off we go, catching up on the weeks past and getting all philosophical about the greatness that is Canada. And then, BOOM ... all of a sudden Im in a bolting gallop down the trail with Q in quite the fright. I pick up my reins (which were very loosey goosey) while I can hear TJ thundering behind us, I pull out my soothing voice "its ok, you are ok" while Q twists his ears back to me with his head up in giraffe mode, and then I pull him to a stop. I turn around as I see TJ riderless and heading towards us like a steam engine. She comes to a stop, and then puts her head down to grab some food. L comes jogging up behind her, grabs her reins and then we walk back down the trail to the picnic table so she can scramble back on. She also was bareback.

Turns out we had passed two deer in the woods and then they bolted behind us. It sent Q and TJ into a bolt, but TJ did a spin and tossed L to the ground, and then did another spin to hurry back to us as I was galloping off. 

And while my legs got tight, and my knees gripped on, I was actually fairly balanced in that gallop. And, Q was fairly responsive when I finally picked up the reins. Im finding his turnaround time in a panic is getting very short and often within the same stride. Cant ask for much better than that.

So now I have to find my courage to intentionally gallop bareback. Maybe today?











Comments

  1. TeresaANovember 8, 2021 at 9:49 AM

    You and Q are such an amazing team. I am in awe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nat DNovember 8, 2021 at 11:13 AM

      Thank you as I wince in pain from my recent fall. :-)

      Delete

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