Beauty

Today, I went by Gwin in the cool morning while Zeek was at school and Sarita and Ceanna were sleeping away their late night sleep over.

Gwin was pretty sweet about seeing me, after all, it had been four HOT days since our last visit. I brushed her out and saddled her just fine. But once we were on our way, she seemed kind of different. She seemed a little squirrely. Even a bit pushy and a little too certain of her power. ???

So we turned around halfway down the drive and went up to the round pen. We did some light ground work to get her in a thinking mood, and when I felt sure she knew we were together for this, we set off again.

She was still nutty, but not in a disobedient way. Just looking all over and moving real fast. It was kind of funny.

We crossed the street and she became even more like a wild horse. Running so intentionally, like we had somewhere to go. She seemed so proud and a little too confident for me. I was really baffled as to what was going on.

On our first trail I lost my sunglasses off my head trying to get her to STOP running uninvitedly through the trees. I had to get off and find my glasses, and then we had a heart to heart. 

As soon as I looked in her soft confused eyes, I realized that she thought this is what I wanted??? That made me stop trying to analyze and figure it out, and I shut up my mind and listened. Then I remembered something. Something that might seem a little crazy to anyone who reads this.

I have been thinking a lot about the 30 minute Adventures of Black Beauty series I used to watch everyday on TV when I was a little girl. I would watch in awe as the rider, Victoria, would ride the absolute dickens out of this horse of hers. I mean they would run her father's medicine bag to him in the next town at top speed - Beauty would take off running knowing there was trouble, and Victoria would just ride right along, trusting her horse's instincts...

Anyway, it was my favorite show. And when it was over I would go outside and sit on the white wooden fence in front of my city home and pretend that I had my own Black Beauty.

When I arrived to ride Gwin this morning, I thanked God for giving me my own real horse, and for all the amazing things we've already been through. I thought about Victoria and Black Beauty all throughout my time grooming Gwin. 

And when I looked into her eyes again, standing in the trees, fixing my sunglasses back on top of my head, I saw the offering. I realized that Gwin picked up on the desire of my heart, and she had been trying to give me just what I had been dreaming of. A ride!

I kissed her face, apologized, threw my sunglasses into my saddle bag, remounted, and gave her permission to haul ass as best she could.

Oh, and she could. :)

She has never ridden with me like that. Never. I kept thinking, "who is this horse?"

So many times I was laughing out loud, tears streaming off the sides of my face, toggling evenly between the words "oh shit!" and "oh yeah! you are awesome!"

I don't know how to explain it. The running and turning... she would literally speed up to take our turns. Where I usually have to guide her to keep from being smacked by branches, she jutted and bolted around them with no leading. I still can't believe some of the crazy stuff she did. It was exhilarating!

It was definitely the ride of my life.

Later, Zeek and I returned to let Lexi (the dog) out and take Gwin and Angel off the grass for Gwen. I asked, as I always do, If Zeek wanted to ride. Nine times out of 10 he doesn't, but today he did!

So, I put Gwen's kid saddle on her and let Zeek ride her in the round pen. They did so well together. He even asked if he could ever ride her outside of the pen. I assured him that if he keeps working with her, they will be out on their own in no time.

P.S. I ordered him the first two season of The Adventures of Black Beauty on DVD today. He does love his horse movies... I hope he loves this one as much as I did.