We are grateful to the good forces in the sky for keeping us all in one piece. Just a few scrapes and bruises .. pfew. An outta control 350-odd kilos randomly flying around the yard and no one got seriously hurt; that must have taken a whole stack of guardian angels for sure.
We got the message, we heard you loud and clear Brandy, you don’t want us to get on your back .. as yet.
First words out of sis’ mouth were, “How did I look, how did I look?” After carefully considering the response she decided that horses aren’t on her to do list any longer, so we’re moving on to plan B.
My sister once more leaned over Brandy, only this time putting her full 61 ½ kilos on the horse with her right foot in the stirrup and for about one milli- second, all was well. Next moment this horse which I was gently going to lead around the paddock for the very first time with a rider on her back, arches her back sky high, aiming for the moon. Near enough simultaneously sis is passively embracing the rocks underneath Brandy whilst pressing her cheeks deeply into the soil. Meanwhile a voice from the side lines is urging us to Get the hell out of the way.
My sister’s elegant nosedive is followed by a swift scramble through the electrified fence to the edge of the paddock as I also run to make place for this impromptu break-dancer.
Ace performance. Back arched, manes, nostrils and stirrups soaring through the air with her feet barely, if ever, touching the ground. Just a whirlwind flying through our paddock. It seemed to last for an eternity. I don’t know if the on and off leaning into the electric fence spurred her on or eventually slowed her down. But we mainly credit her visiting friend, Calypso the gelding, for telling her that, enough is enough.
Eventually her pupils returned and the white of her eyes, by now a little bloodshot, disappeared. She had had a good workout. Hell, we’d all had a good workout.
Maybe the extra 40 kilo’s my sister put on since our childhood years made all the difference, or have I lost my touch already?
Today my sister decided to ride Brandy to the Bay. I told her that Brandy is not ready but she insisted. She also insisted on going bareback and I guess that I should have left it at that but I figured that it would be more comfy for Brandy to have a saddle on her; not that I expected them to leave the paddock together.
I walked Brandy around with the lead, saddle and the stirrups and she was surprisingly fine with it all. I told my sister to put some pressure on Brandy’s back before actually mounting her and she leaned over her and all went well. I then suggested that she shouldn’t put all her weight on Brandy to start off with and she promised that she wouldn’t.
This took us all the way back to our childhood years were we would ride the wild horses on our property.
