Why Scream?

Why scream?  Just relax and enjoy the ride!

I will always ask myself that question about the following incident!

The setting is Clovis, CA.  The same ranch where the cream puff story happened.  We lived on this ranch because my father trained quarterhorses.  My older sister, Sue, showed these horses and had done so since she was little.  She started winning when she was 7.  She was great at it from the beginning and she had this unusual gift and lack of fear where these horses were concerned.  Not me on either count.  They were huge horses and they were temperamental and sometimes down right mean. :)  At this ranch, one of them bit her thumb nearly off.  I had no problem not being the #1 daughter and recipient of all my father's horse related gifts.

I could ride a horse and did for years, but not these guys, well let's just say I had a great respect for their power and their minds.  I was the girlie girl, I did not need to prove anything.  I embraced fear when necessary!  Horse's minds are what you need to pay attention to, they have personalities and you must know them and respect them.  Not being afraid of them made all the difference in your success to control them.

We lost our Sue when she was 20.  She was amazing, fiercely independent, funny as all get out and we miss her.  She was strong and wild and yet, soft as a kitten on the inside.  When I tell you life is short, this is one of the reasons that I know this.  I wish I had told her more that I admired her and how much I loved her.  She was there one minute and gone the next.  There are many, many stories I love to tell about her.  She was fearless when it came to horses.  I would watch her through the years and just never stopped being amazed at what she could and would do.

Back to our story, so let's see, I was about 7.  This would make Sue about 11.  Bren was still a wee one.  While Sue was very active with the quarterhorses, she and I had other horses that we played on.  We did very many adventurous activities involving these horses, Smokey and Shaver, we had a blast.

I remember mentioning in a past Moody about this place and how we used to ride our horses through the vineyard and orchards to get to the store.  We didn't have bikes, we rode horses.

On one occasion we were doing just that and in the orchard, Sue was ahead of me and had stopped to pick a peach.  She stood up in her saddle and reached up into the tree to grab one.  I, being behind her a bit, was not completely standing up, but on my way attempting to do the same.  All would have been fine, but...

Sue, for some strange reason, bounced back down in her saddle, turned her horse back towards me in too fast of a motion.  I knew the minute I saw her in a run that this was a mistake.  My horse reacted.  To this day, I believe his thoughts were, "Whoo hoo!  Back to the barn and food!"  Sue was the leader, so therefore her horse was the leader, get it?  They run, we run.

My fears were confirmed, before I could settle back into my saddle with feet in stirrups, Shaver, turned.  He was thrilled and took off.  He thought this was fun time race back to the barn, which had happened on purpose many times before.  That was not Sue's intention and totally not my intention, but Shaver became a race horse in the blink of an eye.  Unlike normal, I was in the lead.  Shaver was a horse possessed and I could not stop him or even slow him down.  This was not the norm, I always had control of him, not this time.

I have no idea why I panicked, seriously.  Although we did have to cross a real road on our race path to the barn, which we did without incident.  I was not afraid of Shaver at all or what he would do.  We had done it all.  Maybe I knew at this speed, if I did hit the ground, it was going to hurt big time.  I had made it back in the saddle, feet in stirrups, but I did not have the reigns.  No big deal, right?  I have ridden without one or the other before, no saddle, no reigns or no stirrups even!  Hold on and act like you are making him run, what's the difference!?!

Maybe it was Sue, riding her horse like a jockey in the Kentucky Derby trying to pull up beside me to stop Shaver, I don't know.  She succeeded in getting up beside me for just a minute or two, I think we got the reigns in control, but even she could not stop Shaver.  He was not stopping.

Now let's stop the story for a moment and set another scene.  At our house, on the way to the barn, my fly by eta was less than 2 minutes, my dad was having a very important meeting.  A meeting with some very important people about more horse training.  A decision making meeting, I believe.  Mom was at the kitchen sink in front of the kitchen window, which I will soon pass.

  

Back to me and the Secretariat wanna be, Shaver.  So, much to my dismay, when Sue did not keep up with me and my horse, panic set in.  I started screaming, I am much in the belief that Shaver kicked it into a higher gear than we had ever been in before and so the fear kicked in too.  I am screaming.

Needless to say, as I passed the house, the meeting was interrupted by my vocal chords and my mom saw and heard as I flashed by the window.  So stupid, I still laugh when I think about it.  Because in 30 seconds from that point we arrived at the barn.  Shaver stopped at a bale of hay and then acted like nothing had happened.  I am sure he is thinking at this point, boy that was fun, I'm hungry.

Let's not forget that the stop was abrupt.  Had I not been hanging on for dear life, I probably would have gone right over his head at that moment.

This was our life, and I loved it.  Life back then was not so careful and worrisome about the kids and their antics.  We were not patted all the time.  We fell off our horses all the time, we even knocked each other off of our horses.  We were taught that playing and working were part of life and the bumps and bruises were expected.  If you didn't get them you probably weren't giving it your all.  The whole house did not come running out to hold me and comfort me.  Someone checked on us, probably mom, saw that we were stopped and ok and everything carried on.  Are you bleeding?  Is there a bone sticking out?  If the answers were no, fine, go play.

If I am right about my dad, he said something later like, now gall dernit, I was having a meeting!  And, I hope you taught him a lesson?  Horses were never allowed to get their own way, if it wasn't your intention.  In other words, shut up and get back on that horse and show him who is boss, or don't ride!  Actually he did say that more than once, and he meant it.  I remember another occasion in particular.  Dad was let's say, not over protective or attentive.  So yeah, I didn't get off the horse and have a good cry, actually I was probably mad.  I am sure I gave Shaver a "you scared me to death, anger type" piece of my mind, in less than a screaming tone, and then we went right on doing our thang!

This one ranch, like many of the others, was a source of tons of fun and many, many stories to come.

Now don't let me give you the wrong impression, if something bad happened, my parents were all over it with attention, love and help.  My parents were not short on adventure in their lives and personalities that is for sure.  There are a few stories in our future.  Hurricane, broken arm, yellow jackets, etc.