So this past Sunday, my wife and I were on a TREC judged trail ride. She was on her paint and I was on my 2000lb Percheron.
All was going well until at about the 3hr mark, we came upon a downed tree. We were told to stay to the left but not to get off the trail too far as the ground was all swamp. Real swamp as in the swamp thing swamp...
Keep in mind this is all happening within seconds.
So anyway, we're at the downed tree (which is not completely down or we would have walked over it) and we stay to the left. My wife goes down off the trail down a slight embankment and I follow. Once we're down there, my wife cannot find a clear path back up to the trail and her horse is ever so slightly side stepping. Me and mine are so close to the rear of hers now that I could touch her horses butt with my left boot. I'm directly behind my wife and my horse is faced up the embankment which is about a 15/20° angle. I ask my horse to backup slightly and move to the right when all of the sudden, we sink! All the way up to just above her rear hocks (she's 17.1/17.2).
Now it's fight or flight for both of us. There are tons of tree stumps, logs, another horse (who could spook) and all kinds of things that could go very very badly for myself AND my big girl....
Naturally as she immediately starts to get upset and gearing up to start thrashing her way out. I instinctively let out a wooaaa girl... easy easy and reach down to stroke her neck....
---this is the part that gets me....
What does she do? She immediately folds her front legs up under her and lays down. I literally step up and out of the saddle, she stands back up as much as she can, I walk back in the direction we came, leading her and she hops out of the swamp with all 4 legs like some sort of rabbit.
God I love this horse.... she is the absolute best.
I realize that this may be trivial for most, but for me it was a HUGE deal as we've only been together a little over a year and she's the first horse I've ever owned or ridden. In retrospect, there were a lot of lessons learned.
So I had to come on here and brag to people who could at least understand the deep deep feelings that we establish with these beautiful creatures (big and small).
Thanks for taking the time to read my post...
All was going well until at about the 3hr mark, we came upon a downed tree. We were told to stay to the left but not to get off the trail too far as the ground was all swamp. Real swamp as in the swamp thing swamp...
Keep in mind this is all happening within seconds.
So anyway, we're at the downed tree (which is not completely down or we would have walked over it) and we stay to the left. My wife goes down off the trail down a slight embankment and I follow. Once we're down there, my wife cannot find a clear path back up to the trail and her horse is ever so slightly side stepping. Me and mine are so close to the rear of hers now that I could touch her horses butt with my left boot. I'm directly behind my wife and my horse is faced up the embankment which is about a 15/20° angle. I ask my horse to backup slightly and move to the right when all of the sudden, we sink! All the way up to just above her rear hocks (she's 17.1/17.2).
Now it's fight or flight for both of us. There are tons of tree stumps, logs, another horse (who could spook) and all kinds of things that could go very very badly for myself AND my big girl....
Naturally as she immediately starts to get upset and gearing up to start thrashing her way out. I instinctively let out a wooaaa girl... easy easy and reach down to stroke her neck....
---this is the part that gets me....
What does she do? She immediately folds her front legs up under her and lays down. I literally step up and out of the saddle, she stands back up as much as she can, I walk back in the direction we came, leading her and she hops out of the swamp with all 4 legs like some sort of rabbit.
God I love this horse.... she is the absolute best.
I realize that this may be trivial for most, but for me it was a HUGE deal as we've only been together a little over a year and she's the first horse I've ever owned or ridden. In retrospect, there were a lot of lessons learned.
So I had to come on here and brag to people who could at least understand the deep deep feelings that we establish with these beautiful creatures (big and small).
Thanks for taking the time to read my post...