An Unwanted Milestone for Gypsy

On Sunday, I received a text message from Marie, a boarder at J's farm.

The text said "Hey, do you want to go on a trail ride this afternoon?"

I replied "Yes, I would love to."

We set up plans to meet at J's around 4:00. As I prepared to head out to J's, I kept running back in forth which Morgan I would like to ride down the trail. Of course, I am extremely fortunate to be able to ride J's horses. She has been very kind in allowing me that privilege, and I am thankful for that everyday. Without her, well, I wouldn't have the privilege of being around or ON horses without paying lots of $$$$$.

I wasn't sure if J planned on joining us or not, so that left Gizmo out of the options. Gizmo tends to be J's first choice for a trail mount as he's kind of been there done that and J cannot afford to be dumped off of a horse (she has Rheumatoid Arthritis).

Unfortunately Contro, another good trail horse came up from the pasture lame the other day, so he was out of the running. The last time I took Bobby down the road, he bucked and balked for the majority of the ride - emmm...no on Bobby. That left me with Snippy, the ancient QH gelding and Gypsy, who has never once been on a trail ride or down the road.

I decided I'd go ahead and take Gypsy. Since the day I started her under saddle, at the ripe age of 13, she has been a total sweetheart. Never once has she acted out, though I can say that I don't think her favorite thing in the world is being ridden, she's always willing to do it for me and she tries her heart out. Not only that, but she is smooth and very comfortable to ride, like a big old couch or an old skool Coup DeVille.

I trudged out to the pasture to drag Gypsy in. She hasn't been ridden, worked with or groomed, really (I'm not gonna' lie) since August, so she was N.A.S.T.Y. Her golden coat was stained from dirt and mud, her mane had mud in it, her tail was dirty and her bridle path was overgrown. She was also downright obese from a summer of pasture grazing and hay guzzling. Oh my!

I spent a good 45 minutes currying her and getting as much filth out of her mane and tail as I could. I saddled her up, bridled her up then spent about 5 minutes lunging her, just in case. Once the other 3 riders were ready, I mounted up and we headed out. I must say that with Gypsy's stains, she still looked like a total pig; light colored horses - SIGH!

We went down the Lakeland trail, an abandoned train track that was converted into a half paved, half grass path years ago. The trail is busy and caters to bikers, hikers with and without dogs as well as equestrian traffic. Gypsy was a total superstar. She was definitely nervous, but she crossed over a scary set of train tracks and a noisy paved bridge with fast running water beneath it without a problem. On the trail, Gypsy was a bit startled by the seemingly constant stream of people on bikes that crept up from behind us, but after a mile or so, she settled down.

The only issue I had with Gypsy during the entire ride was when we came to a wooden foot bridge. The other horses nervously crossed, but Gypsy was initially having NONE OF THAT. She put up a decent fight, and when she started hinting that she was going to rear, I decided to dismount and guide her across. There were quite a few bystanders waiting to cross the bridge at this point, and with an almost panicky horse I didn't want to make a bigger scene than we already were. While on foot, I began trying to coax Gypsy across the bridge, still she was having none of it. She popped a few minor rears, but had made some progress by inching closer and closer to the bridge. She was trying very hard for me, that much was clear. Finally, one of the other riders came back over the bridge to help me out. She and her horse got right up behind Gypsy and began pushing her forward gently from the back. Gypsy hesitated, gave me a terrified look, lifted her tail to shoot a stream of diarrhea (sorry for that visual) and very carefully placed her right hoof onto the first wooden board of the horse eating bridge of doom.

"SNORRRRRT" Gypsy said, as she took a 2nd step, then a 3rd. She went across slowly and nervousy, but she did it. I praised her the entire way across, and couldn't help to chuckle at her a bit too. The entire way across the bridge, she was picking her feet up very high, kind of like some horses do with a full set of polo/shipping wraps on. On the way back, she crossed it while being ridden. She did attempt to bolt across the bridge for a second, but I was easily able to set her straight.

Overall, I am so proud of her. She's only been ridden a handful of times in her life, she's only been off of J's farm once before this ride and she was just so good. She tried so hard and trusted me enough to go on that ride, crossed two bridges, dealt with dogs, cars and bikes and she barely gave it a second thought. I know she was terrified, but she did it anyway. I love Morgans and I really love Gypsy, she's such a great testament to that breed!