I rode Tivar and ponied Stonewall at the same time yesterday and it was quite an adventure :) Tivar however was comically stoic/exasperated with Stonewall, and both of them were comically perplexed by one horse that kept taking off bucking with its owner, one time almost crashing into us which Tivar avoided by doing a half rear and falling to the side whereupon the horse came between him and stonewall and stonewall was sent down a small ravine, loose, with everyone crying "LOOSE HORSE LOOSE HORSE" with Tivar staring down at him tumbling down the hill on his rear/sides like "you huge dummy" and I just sat there thinking "you huge dummy" and everyone screaming "loose horse loose horse" whereupon stonewall gets to the bottom, looks around like "I meant to do that", lunges up the hill and shoves horses away to hug up to Tivar, which is funny cause he's so much taller he put his head OVER Tivar's neck and stood there almost like "hey, grab my lead rope will ya?"
THEN, two horses spooked and bolted at some sort of field spraying apparatus parked, whereupon Fox spooked and bolted with them, so fast and so suddenly my husband did a sort of half flip off the back and hit the ground. Whereupon Tivar and Stonewall just froze and stared, perplexed as to what was so exciting. It was almost like Tivar, tho, was frozen in place, like he knew not to move or Fox might take off again. Which was a VERY good thing since my husband had somehow ended up laying on the ground beneath Fox's FRONT feet with one foot hung in the stirrup. My heart had stopped, and it was almost like Tivar knew, and froze, and with that, Stonewall did too. Everyone froze. My husbands foot fell out of the stirrup and he started scrambling up and fox danced a little, stepping on my husbands legs twice,but it was minor. If any horse had boogered during that probably 20 seconds it would have most likely been disastrous. We came up on a field of lush green rye and decided to have lunch there so the horses could graze. One horse got loose and walked off casually and the owner had to walk casually about a half mile to catch him. Another horse took off bucking when the rider tried to dismount. The same one that bucked and crashed into us. I dont know the story on that horse, a hot arabian, but my gosh, you could see he meant to buck until the rider was launched, he bucked all the way across the field. All our horses were grazing and staring like "is he crazy??!? Look at all this grass!" In the mean time my husband was talking to some woman and fox walked off, loose, and stonewall started off after him and I gave him a tug and his halter just fell off, the clasp had broken. Neither horse left Tivar who was grazing like he hasnt eaten in years, centuries even. He was wolfing down triple handfuls of grass and I was afraid he would choke. Tivar is not a people horse. he hates to be glommed onto and petted by strangers, except children, which he seems to not enjoy but understands and accepts. And he is not affectionate or needy with other horses or even people really. Its like he is a little bit protective of his space, which my husband describes as "Tivar's little world", but he is a take charge guy in a crisis with other horses and thats a great trail thing to have! At one obstacle, a deep pool of squishy black mud and downed logs which were very slippery, all the horses balked, so when it was our turn I had some trouble getting Tivar to go, but Fox had went with no problem so he finally risked it, slipped, floundered a little, whereupon Stonewall decides to leap past him, slip down, fall, scramble for footing while forcing Tivar left, pinning my right leg, I lost the reins hanging on to the pommel while Tivar just went down and down slogging in mud, he was actually up to his belly at one point, and somehow we ended facing the way we had come, with about thirty horses and riders just quietly watching the tabloid. It was almost like me, Tivar, and Stonewall thought at the same time "oh my this is embarrassing" and I got aggravated and gave STonewall a series of snatches with the lead rope going "STONEWALL!!!" and had gathered my reins and my foot in the stirrup and kicked Tivar with one foot so he would turn, his hip forcing stonewall to turn, which for a change stonewall behaved, we turned around and Tivar lunged out with Stonewall hanging back until he was at the full end of the lead, about ten feet, whereupon he did a dazzling leap, front feet tucked, and the crowd went wildddddd. Which cheering for a horse that will leap thru a mudhole like that was questionable in my opinion. when he landed he crashed into Tivar's shoulder and he flattened his ears and did a little half skip half hearted kick like he was just soooo aggravated haha. Then we got back and our suspicions that we have somehow stumbled into a singles riding club were confirmed. We left while they socialized over hot dogs and beer.... I was worried they were talking about how awful our horses were but my husband said when he went over there to fill the water bucket they were laughing along WITH the guy whose horse had bucked him several times... so I think it is an ok group... gosh there is no perfect group I guess! Unless its no group, just a close circle of riding friends... but somehow I am attracted to group rides. I dont know why! I get bored with the same old people all the time. Janice
