Alrighty. I know it has been a while since I last put a blog on here-Please don't hate me. I have tales to tell of my adventures in South Carolina!
First adventure.
I was on cloud nine because I was able to ride my horse everyday! But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that I hadn't had any 'near death experiences'. Usually, when I come home to SC, I have at least one 'near death experience'. So now you probably can figure out where I am going with this. It was the last Saturday that I was in SC and the whole week before that, I had been doing schooling rides on my horse. So on Saturday, I thought it would be nice if we took a break from schooling and went on a nice, relaxing trail ride. So my trusty steed and I start off on our trail ride. When we got on the trail, I let my reins go to the buckle end, because I could feel that she was relaxed and happy and I was happy to be on a trail ride. Well, the trail is along a fence where this HUGE dog lives. His name is Cherokee and he is the sweetest dog, if you aren't on a horse, riding along 'his' fence. He started barking and running up to the fence. Lily got a little nervous, but once she saw him, she calmed right back down. However, Cherokee got clever, stopped barking and went through some trees so that Lily and I couldn't see him. Then all of the sudden, he is right at the fence, as ferocious as I have ever seen him. He completely scared Lily to death! She spun, and half way bolted with me. Luckily, I had about half a second to feel her tensing up, or else I am sure I would have fallen off. She did all of that so quickly, that I literally almost came off over the back of the saddle. Luckily, my 13 years of riding experience kicked in and I was able to sit back up in the saddle and bring her back to a walk, and then halt. She was pretty trembly still and I had adrenaline pumping through me still, so I was trying to calm both of us down. She calmed down enough to realize that she had overreacted and then proceeded to walk along that same trail, with the same scary dog, much more flat-footedly than before. However, when the adrenaline stopped going through me so hard, I started to think, "Man, my finger sure hurts!" I didn't look down at my finger right then because I still needed to give Lily my full attention. However, I did manage to glance down a little bit later, and saw a lot of blood coming out of my finger. Turns out, when she bolted and spun, I somehow took a pretty good chunk out of my finger. So that was great. But I wasn't to freaked out about it-I've had worse. I love my horse so much! She keeps me on my toes and has made me such a better rider! We had a little trot past my neighbors house, and she didn't even bat an eye when their granddaughter came out of the house, literally yelling, running and waving her arms at us saying, "CAN I RIDE YOUR HORSE? CAN I RIDE YOUR HORSE?" I was expecting Lily to tense up and do a couple of side steps, however, my lovely mare didn't even bat an eye and kept on trotting past! She sure has come a long way since I first met her!
Second Adventure
The next day, Sunday, was going great. Right before I went to go get dressed for church, I looked out the window to check on my horses and saw them sunbathing. I, thinking I had no worries, happily went and got ready for church. I came back upstairs, in my Sunday clothes mind you, and again peek out the window at my two lovely girls. (Can you hear the sarcasm yet?) I don't seem them in the barn paddock, I see them in the fire-pit paddock. I turn to my mom and say,"Oh, who let my ponies out?" Then I look back out the window, back to my mom and say," WAIT WHY ARE MY PONIES OUT?!!?" I race to the back door, throw on the first pair of shoes that I see and head out there. The first pair of shoes I came to, were my sunday heels. So here I am, heading out in my Sunday skirt and heels, trying to catch my ponies. My mini come much more easily than my mare. Oh no, she is much to clever for that. So we have a bit of chasing round the paddock but then she gets tired and stands so that I can put a halter on her. Imagine, for a moment-if you will, me, going out in heels and a skirt and trying to catch my ever elusive pony. I'm sure it must have been hysterical! Once they are back in their proper paddock, I inspect the chain and see that is it not broken at all, and conclude that who ever was the last person in the field, simply forgot to latch the chain. So word of warning to all-when you have the neighborhood grandchildren running around, make sure to double check all chains and latches before locking up for the night!
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