Jamie's Wild Ride

Before I go on with this story I am giving special credit to Marissa at Horse Shoes and Hearts who is my muse today.  She is working on her bare back skills, and reading her post reminded me of a day worth writing about.  So thank Marissa for being my inspiration today. :)

Last  summer my best friend Jamie, came all the way out to visit me from...well from far far away back east. 
Jamie grew up on a ranch in Oregon, and is a fantastic rider, much better than I have ever been. Jamie hates to ride in a saddle, and loves Killian because he is so nice to ride bareback.

This is when we were headed out on a trail ride up into the foothills of Casper Mountain.

 

We rode up the mountain, we walked, we trotted we cantered, she never had any trouble staying on.  I must be getting old because I no longer have the cahonies to go on trail ride bareback.  If my horse spooks at something I want something to hang on to!  Jamie on other hand, has huge cahonies (Not sure if I am spelling that right but thought it would be tacky to say "ba!!$")

We rode all the way up, had a snack under a nice tree and then rode back down. We rode through cows, and through streams, and it really was just a wonderful day. 

This was at the end of the ride just as we were getting ready to load up and head home.

The next day Jamie begged me to let her ride Trax bareback, only in the pasture, just to see what he would do.  I did warn her that he is super leg sensitive and tends to run through a bit.  This was before I had the hackamore for him.

So she gets up on him, sans a saddle, or a helmet, and completely against my better judgement.  The minute I turned him loose he was off like a shot.  My main pasture is about 2 acres, maybe a little less.  He made a full circle at a dead run, and Jamie is hanging on for dear life, and you could just hear the string of profanities coming out of her mouth.  

I yelled, "One rein stop!!!"  She yells, "If I let go of his mane I'm done for!"  I yell back, "Well don't let go then!" 

I truly wish I had had my camera for this part because as well as it being an amazing job of staying on a runaway horse it really was funny and scary all at the same time.

Finally on lap 2, he happened to run past a big pile of dirt we had for filling up our horse pen project and being the quick thinking girl that she is, she made a dive for that pile of dirt.  Trax ran past us and off to the opposite side of the pasture.

If you pretend there is not a horse in this picture you can see said pile of dirt
 which acted as a landing zone for my wild and crazy friend

I rushed to her aide, trying hard not to laugh. I admit I should not have been laughing but, I did warn her more than once!  She assured me she was fine in between the next string of profanities.  A little dirty, and a couple of bruises, but that was all.

We caught Trax with out issue (which surprised me) and I asked, "Well now what?" 
She says, "Help me up on him....in the round pen"  (See, she does learn!)

She spent about 20 min riding him in the round pen bareback, working on stopping with her seat,  and then took him out and walked him around a little bit.  Then she says, "OK,  I have had enough!"

Now, doesn't he look completely sweet and docile in this picture?  Trust me, inside he is laughing his butt off!  In the end Jamie did win, because she did ride him bareback, and he did not throw her, and she did not fall off, she jumped.  Even more important, she got right back on and made him act like a gentleman.  She really does have the biggest ba!!$ of any woman I know!  Make sure you click on the picture to make it big so you the dirt in her hair and on her face and clothes.

So what did we learn from this experience???  When someone says to you," do not ride this horse bareback", you should probably listen.  Unless your name is Jamie and you have really big.....