let's ride

Dixie-May Jackson · 08-21-2011, 12:15 AM

[html]

Poor Thom and his bum leg. Sad

Word Count → 785

Thomas was doing well for his first little lesson, not that it was hard…but he trusted her enough to get near the horse and start working on it. The nervous hesitation as he got closer and took up a handful of grass wasn’t lost upon the little female, and she appreciated that he was giving this whole thing a try. Smiling, she walked around to the other side and started brushing that side as well, quickly getting the dirt and grime off. After a while of scrubbing the dirt off, she went back around and nodded, ”Good job.” Her hands swiped over the horse’s side, brushing off any excess hair, her pink palms coming away covered in the short reddish hairs.

Turning to Thomas, she took the grass from him gently and tossed it to the ground. ”When you move around a horse, you’ve got to be careful and very alert. They can get finicky sometimes and get the urge to kick or bite.” She got closer to Duke’s backside and placed one small paw on his rump, patting gently. Her body moved around to the other side of the horse, pressed close to his tail end and hind legs the entire time. ”If you stay close enough to the legs, a kick won’t do much but move you back a few inches…if you were standin’ back a few feet, you’d get hurt pretty darn bad.” Her hands patted over the horse’s flanks and back slowly, feeling him for any bumps or scabs. Once she was sure that he was free of lacerations, she turned and went back over to the tree.

”Now, Thomas…I see that you got yerself a hurtin’ leg there. You won’t be needin’ to ride if it’s hurt real bad. After I show you how to tack up, we’re gonna need to have a look at it, make sure there ain’t no infection growin’, alright?” Smiling again, she hefted the large western style saddle and walked over to Duke, setting it on the ground gently at Thom’s feet. Her hands pulled a thick layer of soft skins from under the saddle and handed the bundle to the male. ”This is a saddle pad, helps for the leather to not chaff at the horse’s back as they are ridden. Go ahead and put it up there, on the withers here, and then slide it down a few inches…perfect…” She smoothed the skins out over the horse’s back and nodded slowly, ”Time for the saddle, if you can pick it up with the hurtin’ leg? It’s a bit heavy, now…” She watched with a little smile as Thom bent, wincing a little, and scooped the saddle up. Moving the stirrups out of the way, she motioned for him to settle it up on the horses back slowly.

It seemed as if Thomas was just a natural it this, as he didn’t need any help with putting the saddle on. Or perhaps he was just a quick learner and was good at observing. Once the saddle was up in place, she reached under Duke’s belly and grabbed the strap, pulling it around and curling it through the loop on their side of the saddle. ”Now there are two of these straps for holdin’ the saddle on. The one in the back is a bit bigger than the front, and you tie it like this…” She proceeded to show him how to slide the strap through the metal loop, then around itself and back again, forming a perfect knot that could be untied easily. Moving up to the front strap, she pulled that part up as well, not as tight as the back one though. ”This one is a bit different, and can just buckle on usually…the little clasp here broke about a month ago, though. I’ve taken to just wrapping it through the small metal loop a few times ‘till it gets stuck, then it ain’t goin’ nowhere till someone gives it a tug.”

When the saddle was put on and secured properly, she took a set back and patted Thomas’s shoulder gently. ”Let’s go look at your leg. Duke can wear the saddle for a few moments…and when you start ridin’, you won’t have no reins at first. It helps with the balance.” She said softly, sliding her hand into his and walked him over to the fire, where Wayne was cleaning his saddle and reins, occasionally taking a bite of jerky. Sitting down with her back against a boulder, she patted the ground at her side, inviting Thom to sit there as well, ”Go ‘head and take the pants off first so we can have a look at the wound.”

Image courtesy of PNNL@Flickr; table code by the Mentors!

Login




Remember me Lost Password?