After almost 1 year of lessons I offered to lease Tonto's horse from the instructor. By this time, he and I had come to an understanding. He was tolerant of my mistakes and I would put up with his sometimes obstinate behavior. When were at our best, I felt an exhilaration that was unlike anything else I had ever experienced. I suppose this is the reason we ride horses. When it feels like you are dancing, i.e. you ask your horse to move a certain way and the horse responds correctly, you realize you've just communicated with an animal that is bigger and stronger than you and yet is so graceful, it can carry you gently at all of the gaits with it's back lifted up and it's legs driving underneath you. You want this feeling to last forever.
Well the instructor agreed to lease the horse to me for one year. We shook on it and I paid in advance. She went on vacation for a week. During that time, the horse and I had several successful rides. When she returned, just before Thanksgiving, the weather was turning colder. We discussed moving the horse to an indoor arena for the winter so that I could ride throughout the winter and the instructor was agreeable. I told her I would call her after the holiday and we would look for a farm to move him to. The Friday after Thanksgiving turned out to be one of the most disturbing days I've ever experienced.
My wife and I were cleaning up our house from hosting Thanksgiving dinner and the phone rang. It was the instructor and she was sobbing so hard on the phone that I could not understand anything she said so I asked her to compose herself. For a moment she did and she told me that Tonto's horse had died in a freak accident in the pasture. I was crushed...she began crying again and I said I'd call her back later.
Now I had heard how fragile horses actually were. It is hard to imagine an animal weighing 1100 pounds and 20 times stronger than a man is fragile. They pull wagons loaded with people, they run 35 or 40 miles an hour in races, they pull a plow through fields, yet a small misstep can cause bones to break, tendons to tear, or muscles to pull. In my leased horse's case he fell, while running on some wet grass, while he was turned out in a pasture, and landed on his shoulder. This caused him to break his scapula, which is a large, paddle shaped bone stretching from his shoulder to upper leg. Amazingly, after breaking the bone, he limped into the barn and collapsed in the aisle. The vet rushed out but she could not save him and he was humanely euthanized.
I had a hard time processing the loss. For a month I did not want to talk or think about horses. Making the connection I had and then having it suddenly end left an emptiness that I had never felt before. When I would flip through the stacks of magazines in the basket next to my chair in the family room my emotions would oscillate from anger to sadness. Eventually, I called the instructor to talk and she immediately said "I've got another horse for you, when can you begin riding?" I was a little taken aback, how could she just up and get another horse. Didn't she know how much I cared for the one that died. Our handshake agreement was that I would lease Tonto's horse, not a different horse.
So I went to the farm to see the new horse and he seemed pretty enough, sound enough, and she relayed to me that he had a show record, (that means he had competed in events at shows throughout the state and he had won or at least placed high enough to distinguish himself). Also, he was nine so he was likely to be very calm when I rode him.
I told her that I'd think about it and that I'd call her to let her know what I wanted to do. Finally, I agreed to ride the new horse, beginning in the spring. My day job was and is very busy during the winter months. This time away from riding allowed me to keep up with my workload and to further distance myself from the loss of Tonto's horse, which I was still struggling with. He was my first horse, even though I was in my middle 40's, he was still my first horse.
Finally the snow melts, which in Michigan can take until mid April, the tulips poked through the ground and I knew it was time to get back in the saddle. I decided to get a new saddle since all this time I had been using one provided by the instructor. It never fit me quite right and besides, I wanted to start completely fresh. So I went to a local tack store and I bought a new work saddle. It was dark tooled leather with a dark suede seat that held me in place much better than the all leather seat on the saddle I had been using. I took it out to the barn and the instructor brought out the new horse for me to saddle up. The saddling went smoothly, I could tell he'd been there and done that. We walked out to the arena and I mounted up. He was taller than the Tonto's horse.
As soon as I asked him to walk off I began to forget the sadness and I became excited about my new partner. I noticed his stride was a little bit longer than I was used to. I could feel the movement being a little different than the shorter saunter that Tonto's horse exhibited when he walked. After a lap or so I felt comfortable and I asked him to trot. At this point the instructor yelled out to me, "He's going to feel a little different." Now what, I thought. Well I found out. His trot was bouncier than the gentle jog I was used to. I also noticed that his trot covered a lot of ground. I asked him to stop and then I asked the instructor why he felt that way. She then told me he was a hunt seater. "A Hunt Seater"! Now I didn't know much but I had seen enough to see the hunt seat horses in magazines and on videos and I knew that wasn't what I wanted. I also knew that if she thought I was going to ride in those funny pants, which I read in a magazine are called breeches, I would look absolutely ridiculous. I am 5' 9" and I weigh over 200 pounds with gusts up to 230. Fat boys don't look good in breeches. Trust me. Thoughts of disaster began to creep into my head.
The instructor walked up to the horse and I and explained that he can do the all around events, not just the hunt seat. I had no idea what the all around events were. I read the APHA Journal that night and found out they are everything that you can do in a show arena other than what I wanted to do. Trail, for instance, is an all around class. The trail class consists of obstacles that you have to navigate in a prearranged sequence without the horse touching or knocking down any of the obstacles. The obstacles could be poles layed on the ground in a pattern, bridges that you have to walk over or fences that you have to open an close. You have to complete this course using the various gaits as they have been prescribed by the person laying out the obstacles.
I have to keep this simple, I thought to myself, and I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself so I told her that I would just like to ride for a month or two on the new horse so that we can get connected. I know she sensed my dismay and I think she was hoping I'd jump at the chance at doing something completely different but I just wanted to get back to what I already had. I had doubts that would ever happen but I wanted to try, plus I had this new saddle.
I asked the instructor what do I do to make the trot more comfortable and she said you should "post". A new term. I had no idea what she meant. I asked for an explanation and she actually said the following, "rise and fall with the leg against the wall". A response came immediately to mind but my mother taught me never to speak those words to a lady so I simply asked her to explain in more detail. After a little time I felt I understood. What posting really means is to lift yourself up at your knees such that your seat is out of the saddle in cadence with the movement of the horses outside front leg. As his leg goes up, you go up and as his leg goes down, you go down. This was measurably more comfortable than the bouncing up and down I was doing before so I thought this was worth continuing. All we did on this day was trot. We trotted and trotted until my legs and knees felt like jello and I had to stop. I think it was three laps.
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