I want to get out on my horse!!! (Helena: home, college)

[AQHA]

I'm up in Alaska with work, the weather in Helena has been poor, but now that its looking like spring is near, I want to be HOME on my horse. There's nothing like being out on a horse when the vegetation is just starting to break through.

Working your horse up a steep ridge and stopping at the top for a blow. Sitting there while the horse is catching his breath and smelling that wonderful smell of a sweating horse mixed with seasoned leather. The squeak of the saddle between your legs as the horse breaths. The sound of birds happy to be out in the sun. The view from to mountain as you are looking down at the valley floor. These are the things that make horses so enjoyable.

I also love taking care of my horses and making sure they are wormed and trimmed and feeling good. After a while you can just tell how your horse feels by the way he looks. Maybe its the way he holds his head, maybe its the way he stands, I don't know for certain what it is but you can read the horse and know how he feels just by looking at him.

As crazy as it sounds, I also like cleaning out their paddocks and stalls. Their waste is thrown in the ****-spreader and pulled via the four-wheeler out to be spread in the field to provide nutrition for next years grass.

Its said a man is lucky in this life if he gets one great friend and one great horse.
I've had a great friend and two great horses. One has now moved on to the big green pasture in the sky. That was my sisters horse, I rode him through college. He was truly the best horse I have ever had the pleasure of using. I rode him almost every day for 4 years-- winter or summer, we were out in the hills trapping or riding. He had some quirks about him, but never have I ridden a horse that wanted to please as much as he did; and his heart was as big as Canyon Ferry Lake.

I once dropped the reigns and gave that horse his head when we were 15 miles from the house. I wanted to see how far he could go without help. Five miles of steep switchbacks, one water crossing, two gates and several long dirt roads-- he made it all the way home without me so much as giving a leg cue. I sat there like a limp rag and he did it all. For the first 45 minutes his ears told me he was scared, but after he realized what I was doing he did his work like the seasoned champ he was.

I've never lived without horses. As a kid I would sit on the fence rails and watch dad train his horses. Knowing dad didn't like too many questions I kept my mouth small and my eyes and ears big. That's the way to learn about horses, small mouth, big eyes and ears. I didn't fully appreciate the horses then. I was more interested in motorcycles, beer and girls. I had a lot of fun with the motorcycles and beer, the girls I only dreamt of. Now I dream of being back home up on that ridge with the smells and sounds of that horse that's waiting for me to get home and throw the saddle over his back.

Summer is near folks.

[Mt-7]

If you do not write short stories, you really should try. You post really have a way of putting the reader in the moment. Love it...

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by AQHA

As crazy as it sounds, I also like cleaning out their paddocks and stalls.

Nothing crazy 'bout that. There's nothing nicer than taking that tired hard working horse and offering him that fresh, clean, nicely bedded stall to rest in.

My favourite smell in all the world is horse breath. It never fails to cure whatever might be bugging me - a moment or two spent in silent communication and great big lungfuls of horse breath. I'd bottle it if I could.

Stay safe up there AQHA, and safe travel home to your waiting equines.

[RamblinRoseRanch]

I feel ya, AQHA. With my respiratory issues, feedin' is all i'm able to do and all i've been able to do for a bit over two years. My issues will abate with our impending move to NM and once again I can ride my painted pony (even though she IS a gaited beast-lol) and take a deep breath of the wind that blows between her flickering ears.
My favorite horse scent is that warm, sweet smell of horseflesh, in the spot right in the *bend* of their neck. It's been so long since i've ridden that as soon as i'm back in the saddle i'll bet warmed leather will smell divine!

[AQHA]

Its funny how horse people fall in love with the smells of horses. I love the smells you both mentioned, I also love the smell of leather when I walk in the tack room. "The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man."

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by AQHA

Its funny how horse people fall in love with the smells of horses.

Gosh, that made me chuckle because it made me think of my time in Africa... Flies - and some big blood sucking ones at that - were a real problem and there's no feed store or mail order or anywhere to get fly repellent. So you've got to go with what you can get hold of.... so I used garlic. Crushed, raw garlic mixed with honey and water, poured over their feed to be exact. They loved it.

You'd be riding along, horse is sweating, you're sweating and all of a sudden you'd think. "I can smell..... a salad!" Horse sweat + garlic = a very pleasant vinegar-like/salad dressing smell. Only problem was it would make you quite hungry.

BUT the horses were fly-free. It really was incredibly effective... but possibly not the kind of smell normally associated with horse.

[AQHA]

Originally Posted by FiveHorses

Gosh, that made me chuckle because it made me think of my time in Africa... Flies - and some big blood sucking ones at that - were a real problem and there's no feed store or mail order or anywhere to get fly repellent. So you've got to go with what you can get hold of.... so I used garlic. Crushed, raw garlic mixed with honey and water, poured over their feed to be exact. They loved it.

You'd be riding along, horse is sweating, you're sweating and all of a sudden you'd think. "I can smell..... a salad!" Horse sweat + garlic = a very pleasant vinegar-like/salad dressing smell. Only problem was it would make you quite hungry.

BUT the horses were fly-free. It really was incredibly effective... but possibly not the kind of smell normally associated with horse.

Makes me hungry for garlic bread.

[RamblinRoseRanch]

Originally Posted by AQHA

Its funny how horse people fall in love with the smells of horses. I love the smells you both mentioned, I also love the smell of leather when I walk in the tack room. "The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man."

Oh yeah, especially if it's been closed up for a while and the smell is concentrated!

[Rickers]

I don't have horses but my family has and had many. When I was a kid spending summers on my "Dadaws" ranch, my sister and I would get the neighbors unruly horse and she would ride the very scary "Mickey" and I would ride our very old "Potsy". Mickey would never go home unless Potsy went with. Sis and I had a wild day, we were jumped over a fence and bushwhacked through the old apple orchard and back out over the fence again. We were freaked out, beat up, shaken and scared so we headed home.
We settled down and then it was time for Mickey to go home. Things were going swimmingly until halfway to Mickey's home, then all of a sudden right there in the middle of the paved road Mickey decided to lean over towards me and he bit my thumb and dragged me right out of the saddle onto the deck. I still have the scar.
That was in the town of Genoa Nevada when the population was 60 in town. I think I saw the population listed as 6000 or something now but that most likely includes the surrounding burbs !

[AQHA]

Some of the scariest times in my life were on the back of a horse as a kid. As a kid my riding skills were all self taught and I was not a good horseman. Us kids had a shetland pony that was a whole lot smarter than us. She would run under the apple tree to get us off, she would also get tired of the ride and just turn around and head home, there was no stopping her! One time I had a runaway with her and my cinch was not tight, the saddle went under her belly and I took a nose dive into the ground. I cried the whole walk home.