Patches
This guy is in for a bit of training right now with the help of one of our neighbors, without which we would be just lost as to what to do with him at the moment as none of us have trained horses before. He is not a terrible ride, just a little rude and rough around the edges, so we are taking that off, and helping him to get over himself where needed. For one, the guy has a terrible eating habit. He especially likes to dive his head down for food when he is descending a hill, so that I have to be leaning back to stay on, and he is leaning further forward as he dives, giving himself amply opportunity to get his food without me giving him a whack on the withers. But once we get it in his head who is in control, and not to eat, I think he will be a great horse, and so does his trainer!
Patches and I go a long way back to when he was just a colt, and had injured himself very badly trying to escape through an electric fence. His owner, a farmer, was going to put him down, but my grandmother acquired him with the demand that he don’t be put down, but given a chance with her instead. That was about the time I came out to stay with the grandparents to help out with him, and their ranch.
My job was an easy one. I only had to hold him in the cold Idaho air as the sun rose, while David injected him, and washed his wounds. The worst wound was on Patches’ hind leg where as it turned out, a piece of wire from the electric fence has gotten wrapped around the bone. How his leg ever survived that I will probably never understand, but it did, and we spent weeks nursing it back to health.
When he arrived at the ranch, Patches could hardly walk, but by the time the grandparents were ready to move south to their winter home in Nevada, I had gotten him out into the pasture and walked him around, continually a little faster till one day I could not hold his lead rope anymore, and he ran past me, and I had to set him free. He has been running free since, and despite warnings from the vet that he’d always have troubles with his leg, till he finally would have to be put down, Patches is absolutely fine to this day. He’s proven himself a strong horse.
Now, I have probably told this story on this blog before, but as I got to spend that time with Patches when he was young, and now have him for myself, I do consider him a friend as well as a horse. With summer upon is, and the kids about to get out of school for it, we are looking forward to near daily riding, and some time to really work all the horses out. So, while the adventure has long begun, it now begins again.
Kelsey J Bacon