A Horse!

Well, I finally have a horse in the pasture.=) We don't own him yet, right now we're just "trying" him, to see if he'll work for us. I think Mom said something about how this came about, so I won't tell you the whole story over again, but I can tell you about the horse. First of all, his name is Bourbon(apparently like Bourbon Whiskey), and he's a registered American Paint Horse. He's about 19, but still young at heart. I guess he used to be a stud till they gelded him a few years ago and that's why (as Mom said) he doesn't get along w/ other horses. Actually, it's just other geldings that don't work, he gets along w/ mares just fine...till you try to ride him away from them. That's pretty common though. When our friends brought him over, Linnea(the guy's granddaughter) and I rode around the property a couple times, the first time just walking, then we cantered some. It was fun.=) He hasn't galloped yet, but I don't think he's up to that quite yet. He's kinda out of shape right now, but then, so am I.=] Today my entire family wanted to ride of course(they were being kinda weird about it too, but I guess that's what families are for), so I walked them around one at a time. Then I got to ride and B pretty much took off as soon as I got on. Not super fast, but I could tell he wanted to go. Btw, sorry if this is really boring for you, but for those of you who like horses...

Anyways, he didn't listen super good the first time around and he wanted to sprint around all the turns(did I mention he's done barrels?) in the brush area, which is not very safe, so I got him a little slowed down on some of them, but as soon as the path had a section(no matter how short) anywhere near straight, he'd shoot off again. It was kinda thrilling, but I'd rather he listened to me a little better. When I got back after a short, very quick ride I let Dad go for a bit of a ride. Same thing happened to Daddy. I think Bourbon was feelin' frisky and wanted to explore...quickly. When Dad got back, Mom was going to ride, but I think we kinda scared her off unintentionally when we told her he wanted to go, explore, and wasn't listening amazingly. She decided to wait till another day. So I got to go again. Again, I didn't go very long or far because he's not in shape, it was the first day, and it was starting to mist cold. He listened a whole lot better the second time around. I took him at a walk(he even walked around the turns!) through the brush trails so he could start to learn them, and then after I let him canter along the back stretch, he slowed right down when I asked him to. It was much more fun when he listened to me.=) We'll see how he does tomorrow.

The little kids love 'im though.=) Especially Isaac. He's out there all the time petting him or something, probably picking some ticks off to. Bourbon is loaded w/ ticks! He also needs a bath...I think I might save that for Tuesday depending on the weather. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this works out for us. Keep your fingers crossed!;)