horses!

[coraa]

Today, I rode a horse!

This is the part where I get embarrassingly dribbly about horses, because I am one of those people who never grew out of her 'horse period.' It's also me trying to capture the way it feels to be with the horses now, while it's fresh in my mind, so it's probably a bit self-indulgent. If someone being dribbly about horses is going to bore you, this is the part where you're invited to skip on by. ;)

(I also took pictures of the horses, but since I forgot to bring my USB upload cable, those will have to wait until I get home.)



Because it's been raining here and the arena is, basically, soup, we did a "pony ride." First dancinghorse groomed and saddled Capria, and then took rachelmanija around on her. Then tcastleb brought Pandora out, and I got to help groom her.

(Side note: I love Pandora, who I rode in my lesson last time. The best word to describe her is 'magnificent:' she's the tallest horse on the farm, with impressive withers and a long face with a beautiful roman nose; dancinghorse says she's a horse along the old Baroque model, and I can easily believe that, because I could see her as a warhorse or a horse of kings. And of course, being a Lipizzan, she's snowy-white with enormous dark eyes. But even more than that, she's a pleasure to be around: she seems very... I don't know, solid? But still with obvious spirit and emotion. Being near her makes me feel both calm and happy. Yes, I'm talking like someone who's smitten, but that's because I am.)

Then we saddled her up, and tcastleb led sartorias on Capria, and dancinghorse led me on Pandora.

dancinghorse says that the world looks different from between the ears of a horse, and it's absolutely true. The desert looked very different from there: I could see more, and I could feel the rhythms of the path and the ground through her hooves. When you're on the back of a horse, of course, you don't really see her (or his, but I was riding a mare, so her) face, or the whole of her body. Instead you see the long line of her neck, and her ears, and you feel the motion of her body. I'm still horse-deaf in the sense where I can't figure out half of what Pandora's communicating to me, but even so it does feel like communication to feel her gait and watch her ears perked forward and flicking sideways and back to track what's going on around her. In the (few) moments where she got distracted, I'm pretty sure I could feel it in the way she moved before that happened (although, of course, being both horse-deaf and not an experienced rider, there wasn't anything I knew to do about it—which is why it was good dancinghorse was holding the reins!).

The other thing, something I remembered from October when I was here last: it's amazing how quickly I forget how high up I am. As I mentioned, Pandora is not a small horse; she's magnificent in scale as well as build. And at first, when I get up on top of her, there's a moment of 'wow, high!' But as I ride, that moment passes, and it's just like the horse and I are doing something together rather than it being me sitting up really high. Of course, I still have definite moments of 'wow, high!', but that's not the whole of it. It reminded me of something ozarque said once, that in Navajo, the equivalent of "I rode a horse" is more accurately translated "A horse was animal-ing about with me."

Let's see. So then we brought the horses back in and I went back to the house to get my camera and took a bunch of pictures. I got several of Pandora, who posed very beautifully for me; several of Tia (who I also love; I'm fond of her partly because I 'sponsored' her last year, and partly because she's got beautifully inquisitive ears and a nosy manner that makes me smile); Carrma, standing quietly and patiently a little way away from the rest; and Khepera, who's just full of personality. (I also got some of the other girls, but I confess I'm not as good at telling them apart.) tcastleb told me a little about their relationships with one another, which was fascinating, and I got to see it in action.

Then it was time to blanket them, and tcastleb very kindly lent me her big mud boots so I could help. I helped feed the horses, and then she demonstrated on Pandora how to put a blanket on. Then Capria stood very patiently while I fumbled my way through it, even though it took me a couple of tries to get the blanket up over her back, and some fumbling around to find the straps and secure them. She was very sweet and patient, and even put her head up for me to get the neck-hole over her head without any prompting. (It probably helped that she was happily munching her dinner while I did all this.)

Anyway. I ♥ these horses. And tomorrow, if the weather's good, we'll get some information on horse communication, which I can't wait for.

Comments

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

There are certainly a lot of dissimilarities because of the whole prey vs predator thing--I always tell people the difference between a horse and a cat is, the cat will investigate something new on the grounds that it might be edible, and the horse won't on the grounds it might eat her--but there are definite "domestic animal" characteristics. A lot of horses really do genuinely like people. (My mare is especially fond of little kids. The gelding next door doesn't really like anybody but little kids.)

When I was a kid we had Siberian huskies, speaking of breeds that will not hang around. Sweet, affectionate dogs, but they would just as soon have the adventure and then tell you all about it later!