Hanging Up My Boots.

The good news: I rode Quattro myself today for the very first time!
The better news: He was a little rockstar. WHAT a nice young horse he is; I'm so lucky to have him.

But now, for the bad news: I'm hanging my riding boots up. It's time.

For those who don't know me, the backstory is that twenty years ago, I had the Big H/J Wreck: pulled a rather large paint mare down on top of me and broke my hip in 2 places, my pelvis, and two vertebrae. HRH Avery broke two more for me spooking at a Mini about five years ago, so that makes a total of four vertebrae (L1 through L4, if you're into keeping track of that kind of thing) that are fused and don't work at all, as well as the fact that the hip and pelvis healed all funny and I'm 37% range of motion disabled laterally, meaning my hip (usually) works fine going forward and back, as when walking, but I can't stretch my right leg to the side for more than a couple of inches. But enough of my medical problems; I can't stand old people who go on about their medical problems. I'd rather tell you briefly, if I may, about a couple of very special horses...

There's a saying that goes "There is no secret so deep as that between a man and his horse." HRH Avery, my late and sketchily-sound Thoroughbred, and I shared that secret. In public, he'd do his best to pretend he was still a Good Horse and I'd do my best to pretend I was still a Good Rider - but we were FAKING IT, and the unspoken secret between us was "Yeah, this hurts like blazes, but don't tell anybody!" He understood totally that it was his job to Take Care Of Me, the same way I did him: Thoroughbreds have an exceptional sense of quid pro quo; it's their best trait. We pottered on for years doing what little we could do; sometimes once around W-T-C in the ring on good footing, sometimes an hour's trail ride; other times I'd scramble aboard and grit my teeth with the pain and he'd take four lurching steps and we'd stop and look at each other and say "Uhhhhh... NO." and I'd scramble off, stick his halter and "lunch line" on him, and lead him out to eat grass while I lay under an apple tree.

The one-year anniversary of HRH Avery's death is this coming Wednesday. He was my Mostest Hoss, who guarded my secrets well, and I miss him deeply.

When I was sixteen and a hotshot Big Eq. rider who could and would get up on absolutely anything and probably manage to squeeze a decent trip out of it (like Catch Rider Hannah is now!), I used to wonder how people could STAND to "just" be The Owner. How could anybody STAND to have a super-nice horse and never ride it? It just didn't compute in my head.

Now, at the age of 51, I understand completely. The answer is simple: You give up riding when (a) it's no longer fun, and (b) when it's the best thing for the horse. Not necessarily in that order.

For me, both (a) and (b) are now true.

I got away with riding a lot longer than I should have because HRH Avery was so wise, as well as being a mature horse who was 17.2 hands and built like a tank so he could more easily tolerate, in the physical sense, any unevenness from his rider.

For Quattro, this is NOT the case. He's a narrow 15.1 and he is green, green, green. He's still trying to find his own balance let alone help me with mine. He was quiet and perfectly well-behaved when I rode him today, but I swear I could *feel* his left stifle popping out when we trotted. And then came the calamity that really drove it home that I do NOT need to be riding any more: I couldn't dismount. My bad right hip had absolutely turned to water and I couldn't move my right leg at all. Marisa had to actually leave me on him and go for help! It took two people and an exceptionally kind Saddlebred to get me off him, and it very nearly took a truck!

I got off him and said to myself "Yep - time to hang the boots up." And I gave my little Q a huge hug and a bunch of cookies for being, in all likelihood, the last horse I'll ever ride, and being SUCH a good boy about it!

No sympathy, please. I'm blessed. As regular readers will recall, I saw this coming at least a year ago, and took Quattro in with the express intent that whatever he ended up doing under saddle, he would also cross-train into carriage driving for me. I just want to make sure he gets some good under-saddle mileage first, and finishes growing both physically and mentally. He is a LOVELY little horse, and I'm so lucky that in what is really a pretty NON-huntery-jumpery part of the USA, I've found such great trainers and catch riders who can ride and show him for me.

And you know what? It's not really all that BAD being "just the owner". I'm still pretty hands-on with the boy, and will be for quite some time, since his driving training will be done by me and all his show prep and whatnot still is, too. It's not like I'm going to be sitting in some foreign country just writing the checks. I'm also a big believer that everything you ever do to/around a young horse teaches that horse something; every handwalk or ground drive he goes on with me will make him a lot easier and more reliable for Hannah and Marisa. Just today, for example, Quattro met FIRE for the first time - there was a cookout at the barn, and he nearly had a meltdown at the smoke and crackling wood, but I managed to talk him out of it, and taught him to walk past it quietly and calmly. That's one MORE future potential carriage driving wreck averted!

So that's it really - I'm hanging the boots up, and will watch with great pride and excitement as Amy, Hannah and Marisa take my little Tony the Pony to the next level.

The adventure continues!