Posted: Jun 15, 08 11:16pm
What was the most terrifying ride of your life? Most of us have had one.
Here's mine:
My all-time favorite dressage instructor was Cathy, who was a great rider with an unbeatable seat and an unmatched empathy with her mount. Cathy's main show horse was Rosenkavalier, a 17 hand Trakehner, who'd cost Cathy her life's savings, and then some.
I admired Cathy, so when she asked me to exercise Rosen on the trails around the Horse Center, I couldn't refuse. I'd never ridden Rosen, who was quite a handful, but I was good with skittish horses and hoped I'd be up to the task.
Cathy neglected to tell me that she was sending her hotshot boyfriend along with me on his green Hanoverian stallion.
We started out well enough; but, about a half hour out from the barn, the boyfriend began to take all the downed trees and brick walls we encountered at a gallop. Rosen became more and more restive as I held him back again and again--I couldn't risk him being injured over one of those unsafe obstacles.
We would have made it without event--although I wanted to wring the knucklehead boyfriend's neck--but a sudden thunderstorm, high winds, and torrential downpour came out of nowhere. The boyfriend's stallion spooked badly and he was off like a shot, screaming at the top of his lungs. That was it for Rosen.
He bolted like a mad thing. I used every technique I knew to steady, balance, and soothe him but he was overcome with fear. I let him have his head a little and we galloped (for what seemed like hours) along unfamiliar, narrow, steep, slippery trails as I tried to quiet him. All the while the boyfriend and the stallion careened on ahead of us, totally out of control.
Rosen had just begun to relax when a dead tree was blown down directly in front of us. He would have broken his front legs on impact if we hadn't jumped it, so I jabbed my heals into him and we popped into the air, avoiding certain disaster.
Unfortunately for me, a branch swept down and pulled me off his back some 8 feet in the air. I fell backwards over the log and was bent around it like a horseshoe, but sheer adrenalin bounced me right back up onto my feet. I had held onto the reins, but they broke as I fell and Rosen went mad with fear, galloping down the trail, bellowing--reins and stirrups flapping--through the pelting rain and whipping wind.
All I could think was "Poor Rosen, poor frightened boy!" But as I began to call him with as soothing a voice as I could, I also thought "Oh my God, this is Cathy's precious horse!"
I called with a wavering voice, putting as much love and comfort in it as I could. Finally, I heard the sound of galloping hooves and whinnying coming back toward me. Sweet Rosen was calling me like a frightened foal calling his mother. He galloped right up to me and slid to a stop, his sides heaving and nostrils flaring. I had never been so relieved in my life.
I walked him for a while until the rain and wind abated some, then mounted, and Rosen and I made our way slowly back to the barn. I praised him and caressed his neck all the way. What a good boy he was. And so ended the most terrifying ride of my life, without any permanent damage.
Except, of course, to Cathy's relationship. Exit one boyfriend, stage right... .
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