Something Borrowed

Today Brian and I had a new experience. We drove out to the barn, went into the pasture, and put a halter on a horse other than Steen (Steen himself was none-too-pleased about this, actually, but I came back for him later so it was okay.)

Meet Cal:

Cal is a cute little red-dun quarter-horse mare, and beyond that, I don’t know that much about her except she’s an accomplished show-horse who hasn’t been shown recently. She came to my attention for the first time on the group ride last weekend, and I couldn’t help but notice how well-behaved and relaxed she was, even though I knew that was the first time she’d been ridden in months. As her owner is a bit MIA, I spoke to Cathi and we worked out a little deal that involves the trading of some of Cal’s care for Brian to be able to take her on some easy rides. We figure this is an excellent way to ease in the direction of perhaps having two horses one day ourselves, but not having to make any big commitments yet.

So, today was a bit of a muddle at first. It’s rained for two days straight so the barnyard was mucky, there is still nowhere to tie horses and we had to get a hodge-podge of tack put together to use on Cal, but in the end we got everything worked out, Brian up on her back, me on Steen, and the four of us walked up and down the strip by the pasture (it’s about a quarter-mile long, we figured out today) four times. Cal was possibly the most relaxed of all of us. She’s trained western pleasure and seems fairly unflappable, but was willing to pick up a trot when asked.

It was a good deal of fun. Brian did very well, as did Cal. Steen and Cal are good buddies in the pasture so they are willing to go along together. I believe it won’t take much for Brian and Cal to get used to each other, and then I think we’ll be able to get some good rides in over the course of the fall.