Wild horses!
......they are of course not wild but for me they might as well be. They live on the land that is where my back garden would be if I had one and they belong to the stables adjoining the fields. There are perhaps twenty or so and day in and day out they potter around, graze and take paying customers for riding lessons. These are most definitely not wild horses, wild horses do not take five year old children out for riding lessons! There are of course one or two that are somewhat more 'spirited' and reserved for riding by the proprietor and those who's horse handling skills are more advanced. And there is the rub.
As a child of maybe 12 years old I learnt to ride, not well but I could generally persuade a horse to go in the direction I wished and at the speed I dictated. All was well until one December morning, girth not suitably tight and feet not yet placed in stirrups, some joker decided to crop the rear of my mount.....who immediately took off like the wind. Perched as I was, saddle slipping, feet flailing and reins dragging, it was only the strength in my then gymnastically trained legs that kept me vaguely seated That was until a fence was reached, the horse stopped dead and I was most un-ceremoniously catapulted, at high velocity, from loose saddle into a field full of cows and the associate 'muck'!
With bruised and shaken pride and butt, I gathered my sore self up, went home and never sat on a horse again! I meant many times to re-learn, it still has appeal to me. I now have a good riding school not 500 yards away and horses I kinda know but hell, they are just so goddamn big!. I may have ridden large, powerful bikes but I was in control, bikes can't dig their heels in, they don't have a mind of their own!
I was never really aware of horse personalities until I lived here watching them day in and day out. I love to see them roll over and over on their backs, race up and down the hills making snorting, happy noises, most obviously full of glee and fun. They always make me smile but the sound echoing around me and the earth vibrating under my feet, as 24 or so hooves thunder over hard ground, has an uncanny knack of reminding me just how big and heavy these beautiful creatures are........ and somehow I never quite make it to the other side of the fence or the riding lesson!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment