36/365 A pony and a Clydesdale

The original plan for Saturday included going to our horse trainer's house to watch as Tina worked in the round pen with a couple of her other clients. We'll be doing that in a couple weeks, so we were looking forward to a preview of what was in store for us.

But when the day dawned rainy yet again, plans changed. Tina invited us load up our girls and take them to the neighbors' indoor arena and ride with them. Because the footing in this arena isn't great, we didn't have any big new tasks to work on. Instead we just had the chance to spend time practicing the cues and work we've been doing for the last few months.

We rode with the same group as last time, including Sally and Temper, the "black stallion":Our girls did very well. Oprah kept her feet to herself this time (thank goodness), and we didn't have any big excitement until the owner of the barn came in to ride with us. His chosen horse wasn't just any horse -- it's a Clydesdale. Not many people ride Clydesdales. I imagine it must feel like trying to ride an elephant. They also tend to be "trippy" (exactly what it sounds like), so they can be rather dangerous.

All of our horses, including those of our fellow students', immediately reacted when this horse came in the barn. The stall area is actually outside of the arena and down a hallway, so the horse wasn't even in the same room. But as soon as she (it was a mare named Nikki) came inside to be brushed and saddled near her stall, all of our horses wanted to go check her out and watch. We had been walking in circles around the outside of the arena, like at a skating rink, but every time we got to the end near where Nikki was standing, our horses started craning their necks and did not want to listen and keep walking. Their attention was fully on this new horse.

I went outside to get my camera at Tina's request, because she wanted to a picture of Pat and her pony, Ginger, next to this Clydesdale. She said if she ever gets a website, she wants to put the picture on it to say, "I can fix your horse's problems, big or small."

Notice that it's the woman on the pony who is wearing a helmet -- not the guy on the Clydesdale!

The biggest excitement of the day happened when a couple guys arrived at the arena to buy some of the hay stacked inside. The owner got off the Clydesdale and tied her to a rail of the round pen. When he walked away from her, she wanted to follow, so she started walking -- and pulling the pen with her. The panels of the pen clanged against each other loudly, which made her start to freak out and pull back harder. The round pen morphed from a circle into more of a teardrop shape. Luckily the owner wasn't too far away, so he was able to get back to her, untie her and calm her down. If he hadn't, she would have kept pulling, the pen would have folded up and fallen over, and she could have run off with it. And that could have been disastrous.

So we learned a good lesson -- never tie your horse to something that can move!

Camera: Canon Rebel DSLR indoors under halogen lights, with additional natural light from high windows.
Temper: 1/60s, f/4.0 at ISO 800
Clydesdale feet: 1/60s, f/4.5 at ISO 800
Clydesdale and pony: 1/60 s, f/4.0 at ISO 800