My love affair with Colby continues. He's so big and strong and totally the resident bad boy. Dreamy, no? When he stomps and kicks at the stall door to get my attention, only to snap at me when I finally cave and go over to rub his nose, I can't help it, my heart just flutters all the more. He's playing hard to get and I'm eating it up.
Having said that, I have a new crush to tell you about. He's the new kid in school. A very big guy. I'd say just a tiny bit smaller than Colby, but younger, he could fill out yet. Mylo is an ex-cop horse. Kicked off the force for bad behavior; I kid you not. The director of the academy took a shine to this incredible guy and picked him up, excited by the challenge of taming him until he's ready to be ridden by students. Until then, nobody rides him but her.
If Colby is the sexy bad boy, Mylo is the sleek, stunning jock. He's perfectly proportioned, incredibly graceful and utterly memorizing to watch. Ally, the director, usually works with Mylo on Thursday nights, while my class is in the ring. Until this week, she always had him on a training lead, doing circles and drills with him. But this week, she walked him out, fully tacked, and the instant I realized she was going to ride him, my own practice went to shit. I could not take my eyes off of this horse. Nor his mount for that matter, despite the fact that I could tell that she was struggling with this big, wild horse, she is so beautiful in the saddle; so comfortable and confident. It gave me something to aspire to. My own instructor had to remind me several times to, "Take your eyes off Mylo and watch where you are going."
I should be fair and mention the horse that I actually rode this week. As with every horse that I ride, she also managed to steal a little piece of my heart. Her name is Charlie. She's a 12-year-old grey Thoroughbred cross mare. She is truly lovely. Quite substantial at 15.5 hands and really interesting to ride once you get her going. She's very choppy in her trot, which makes it more difficult to stay in control while posting, but it's a challenge and I like that.
My favourite quirk about Charlie is that she hates to have her hind right foot picked out. Instead of reluctantly giving in and lifting her leg, as most of the others will do eventually, Charlie will lift the left hind leg instead and when you try to coax her to put it down and lift the right, she leans on you with all her might, almost willing to topple right over, just so that you don't get at the foot. I'm sure you can imagine that ending up underneath a toppled Thoroughbred cross is not that high on my life's list of To Dos. But it makes me laugh because she's so clever and so stubborn. And once you've made me laugh? Well presto, you've stolen my heart. Plus, she has the prettiest, wisest eyes. Grandmother eyes.
In case you can't tell, I have become obsessed with this sport. Obsessed. My intro class is ending next week and then I will start taking privates. They are not cheap, in fact it will cost me more than my car, but I can't stop now. I'm willing to - wait for it - cut back on shopping in order to make it happen. I can say with all honesty that nothing has left me this fulfilled and happy in a very long time. Amazing.
Introducing Charlie:
2 comments:
I think this is so great. I'm the same with pilates. I give up shopping and other things to afford that private class once a week. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Ride on sistah!
Who knew reading about horses could get me hot? Whoremones!
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