I had the BEST horseback riding experience of my entire life this morning. Herding cows is infinitely better than riding around a pasture with nothing to do. And the funny thing is, I almost decided not to ride because the wind was so horrendous. We got to our destination this morning and first herded 97 head of cattle to an adjacent pasture across a busy road. The road we crossed is so busy we had to get the police to block it off before moving the cattle. Despite the cops being there, that part was majorly boring. We just walked the horses and didn't hardly do any work. After that was done, I wanted to ride more but the wind was getting so bad I was ready to call it a day. Jeff convinced me, though, to go with him and John to get 15 more head to help Samantha (the horse) get used to the cows and herding. I really like to help and see Samantha's progress, so I couldn't say no. The wind started to lay off as the three of us traveled through a valley and when we found our cows, John left Jeff and I to herd them back the way we'd come. (John had to go get some other cows out of the way).
So, the first thing that happened was the cows were following a fence in the complete opposite direction of the trail so I had to run after them, make a big cirle around, and then face them so they'd turn around. After that, the cows missed the trail we wanted them to go down so I had to do the same thing... circle around them to change their direction. I was just happy they didn't scatter and went down the trial as instructed. After that, Jeff and I did some very scary riding (for me). We were going down a steep valley/gully (idk?) crevasse? of land that was crazy uneven at an extremely fast clip for me in that kind of terrain (trotting, cantering) and although I was loving it, I was also so totally freaked!!!
Along with the variety of riding we did this morning, I loved how excited Sherman was to be doing his job. Most often when I ride him, he gets restless at a certain point and I know he's like "Why the hell are we out in this pasture doing figure eights. Dumb. Over it." And then he takes it out on me by either trending towards the barn or bouncing around like a looney. Today was different. Even though the wind was outrageous (horses hate wind) and he had an unexperience rider on him, Sherman was great. He had a job to do and he did it.
After the crazy speed in the crazy crevasse, Sherman and I had to turn the cows around one last time to get them through the gate and across the same road. Seeing the cows go through the gate was such a proud moment for me! I felt on my way to being a real cowgirl at that moment! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy Jeff made me go and also made me do all the turning around of cows. I'm also SO lucky to have Sherman teaching me what's what. Here are some pictures.
Sherman boy, himself.
Hanging out with J.
WINDY.
Jeremiah and Paint. Badass.
Lovebug.
So happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment