To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Airs Above the Ground

Fitting for a Lipizzaner, no?

Yesterday I took Lance out for a hack down the lane. Stopped and dismounted to visit with some snowbird neighbors I hadn't seen since last year, and typically-antsy Lance was surprisingly good during the wait, settling in with his muzzle in the middle of my back while I leaned over to visit through the car window. They left, I remounted, and we kept moseying (he was being EXTRA conservative with his energy).

An approaching vehicle crested a hill in front of us, a small SUV towing a very rattly little trailer. When Lance's head shot up, I jumped off. The driver slowed, then stopped (bless him) as Lance, eyes on stalks, channeled his ancestry at the end of the reins in the plowed field beside the gravel lane. I thanked the driver and waved him by, leading Lance on in the direction we had been headed and the vehicle had come from. The trailer resumed rattling and Lance leaped again, but by now we were on the gravel. His feet slipped out from under him and he landed hard, BAM, flat on his left side!

We didn't immediately head home; after he scrambled to his feet, I led Lance to the end of the gravel lane and back, remounting on our side of the intersection with the paved road. He had more energy than when we started out yet at the same time seemed a bit subdued. I gave him a gram of bute to help with body soreness; he has a little road rash but otherwise seems fine.

Where do these fears come from??? I think my horse needs a shrink!

3 comments:

Theresa said...

I wish I could offer some insight, but I can name on one hand the things that freak out either one of my guys. And the list is quite different for each horse.
Glad the goober didn't do any terrible damage. And glad you didn't ride this one out. :-)

Robin + Christmas said...

My name's Christmas and I'm a Dachshund running for mayor of Blogville, a pet blog community! My blog address is www.pawprovince.com and we'd appreciate it if you stopped by and maybe joined our blog with Google, too! Thanks so much!

Your new pal,
Christmas

Michelle said...

Me, too, on that last sentence, Theresa. On one of our next rides, he got really nervous about another vehicle that passed pulling a flatbed trailer, but didn't "lose it."