Horse And Gun

Riding is good for mind, body and spirit, it's fun, too, provided you don't fall off the horse and smash yourself to pieces. With that in mind, I went for a ride yesterday on a new horse. 

She's an Arabian mare called Wendy, who had been in very bad shape when she was bought for the vast sum of $300. She looks fine now, but what was she like to ride? After getting a cup of coffee at Big Willy's, I went to find out.

First off, she was gentle and well behaved, at least to humans, maybe not so much with her horse pals. She was also responsive and easy to ride, even for a rusty horseman like myself. We walked, trotted and cantered and I thought, "I like this horse!" 

No crazy bucking, head tossing, snaking, ducking and diving, just riding, with plenty of power held in reserve. She'd be fun to gallop and run, and I'll try that later. It turns out she's had good training, though that wasn't known when she was bought. Long story short, I've ridden horses that were orders of magnitude more expensive and much less good.

After horsing around I went for a shoot, and that was alright too, though my groups weren't much to write home about. Whatever, it's all rounds down range.

Stay on the horse and keep squeezing the trigger,

LSP

Act of Valor

I'd hoped to write a book review this evening but ended up watching Act of Valor.

Now I want to get hyper-fit and become a SEAL Team padre. And jump out of planes and get an Eotech for the carbine.

gratuitous saddle shot

Too old though, fortunately enough for the spec ops community...

Ride tomorrow, looking forward to that.

LSP

Ride On

truckers

To my mind, and I'm not alone, horse goes well with gun. It's just the way the algo works, and I was pleased to see the juniors take to both.

Miltown

They were a little nervous at first, which is no bad thing, but took to the business naturally. Our first excursion was cut short by big rain, but the kids were able to get in the saddle and be lead about. I loved the smile on the youngest's face as BeBop went into a gentle trot.

all about the hat

Next time out we visited Miltown Arabians and the weather managed, by some miracle, to stay the right side of hot. Both graduated from the round pen into the pasture and the eldest managed a few strides of canter. Well done.

Canter

A day later some friends kindly followed up a shoot, after delicious ribs, with a ride in the arena. Beautiful, well trained horses and some expert supervision. It didn't take long for the boys to move out of the round pen; the youngest was happy walking around the perimeter and the eldest wanted to go fast, so he cantered off in good style. Not bad at all for his second time out.

Faster!

I was proud of them both, though less so of myself; being over excited I charged around foolishly, which didn't earn any points. But great fun, which is what it's all about.

catch up, LSP

Must sort the kids out with horses in Calgary, but in the meanwhile -- huge thanks to VS, BE, the Munroes et al. 

walk on

Stay in the saddle and God bless,

LSP

A Sign

Some people might say that the above sign is a piece of gun-toting redneck badness. Others might think it greatness. I incline towards the latter.

Thanks, Tom, for the image.

Appointment with horse cancelled due to sleet (for goodness sake), so its back to the Book of Revelation and Austin Farrer. Farrer is genius and, to my mind, the greatest Anglican theologian of the twentieth century - there were several good ones back then.

If the sleet stops might venture out for a shoot.

Cheers,

LSP