DreamcatcherArabians

The Perfect Way To Celebrate Christmas!

Dec 26, 2008

Every Christmas Eve I go out to the barn sometime around midnight.  There's an old belief that at that time the animals can talk to you.  Every year, I go out to see if they still can, and they do!  Not in words maybe, but in nickers, sighs and my favorite of all....blowing on my neck.  My horses all love attention and when I go out late at night, they're all so relaxed and sleepy and I just pet and stroke and inhale that lovely horsey smell.  One horse loves to have me hold her head and pet her face.  Another loves to lip my chin and another wants to just smell me all over.  He's the one who nuzzles my neck and exhales on it.  By the time I've paid attention to all 12 horses, I am so relaxed and at peace with everything it's amazing.  And somehow, no matter how cold it is outside, in the barn it's always JUST right and I go back in the house warm and thoroughly snuggled. 

Christmas Day is always lovely and spent with family and friends and by the time it's over, I'm sooo ready for more horsey time.  So on the day after Christmas, weather permitting, I go for a trail ride.  Yesterday was so incredibly perfect, temps in the 70's for cryin out loud.  I left So. Cal. 4 years ago and never thought to have another Christmas that warm!  My horse, Marq My Words, and I went out to Lake Carl Blackwell for his first ever trail ride.  What a HOOT!  I retired my old trail buddy last year at 29 years old and Marq is only 6 and very very green.  It's been so long since I roade a green horse that I'd forgotten just how much fun it is. 

Everything is a HORSEEATINGBOOGER to a green horse.  We got out of the trailer and his eyes were huge and he was inhaling all the new smells so hard he was snorting..  I got him all tacked up and ready and led him over to a picnic table so I could get on.  Marq isn't real big, but I'm real short and at my current weight, I don't like to try to mount from the ground, I think it's hard on their backs.  WELL that table tried to eat him, or at least that's what he thought.  After a few minutes I was up on him and we started in the direction of the trail head.  Oh m'gosh, that parking lot was DANGEROUS!  We zigged and we zagged past all of those terrifying cars and trailers, to the point I was starting to think our whole outing was going to be spent in the parking lot at LCB.  Finally, Marq decided it was all good and we crossed the road to the trail head where he found, HORSE EATING COLORED RIBBONS blowing in the wind.  Oh wow!  He spooked and dropped so low I thought his belly was going to scrape the gravel.  Then we stopped dead and froze.  Then we spun around and tried to go back to the SAFETY of the parking area.  "Scuse me?  When did that parking area become a refuge?  Again, I thought we'd be spending the afternoon trying to get past those trail markers.  He saw another horse after about 10 mins of all this and then got brave.  Those flags were NO PROBLEM.   Been there, done that.  I could hear him thinking, "I wasn't scared, nope, not me.  I was just playing.  OHMYGOD what is THAT?"  We were approaching another horse eating trail marker in a particularly dangerous shade of yellow.  We stopped dead in our tracks again.  Then we went sideways, then backwards into the grass and bushes and tried to take my head off on a low branch....Finally we looked at it with the RIGHT eye and it wasn't spooky at all.......Gotta love the way horses brains are wired. 

Well, long story shortened slightly, what took me 10 mins on my old horse took 3 hours with the youngster!  It was a glorious, warm, sunny day, and the breeze was just right and we had a GREAT time.  No real issues, Marq got brave after initially spooking at everything and at the end was just dying to know what was around the NEXT corner.  So at that point, we quit on a good note and walked back to the trail head and came home.  Marq got out of the trailer with his tail flagging and pranced all the way back to the pasture.  He was IMPORTANT!  He got to go on an ADVENTURE!  He ran out and told his pasture buddies all about it.  I super enjoyed taking my 'new" horse out for a ride and can't wait until next week when we can do it again!  


Marq My Words, the little horse that can

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About Me
Stillwater, OK
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Dec 20, 2008
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