Giddeyap, Jingle Horse

Every year when shotgun season rolls around, my brumby rolls her eyes at me as I dress her up in all the pieces of orange I can find. I tied this orange cloth on her bridle and it ended up looking like a big silly bow! Don't shoot, please, my brumby and her giant bow are coming through! Today is also December 1st  which means it's officially holiday season (which I love), and we also woke up to a little blanket of snow. A perfect Saturday.

Every year I hear new horror hunting stories where people out in the woods with guns accidentally shoot a person. I always ride on land that is mostly posted. But just because any yahoo can't hunt there, doesn't mean the families who own the land don't hunt there. Or their friends. Who could be yahoos. I am pretty sure Bill's land isn't posted at all. You just can't be too careful. I was also riding alone, so I had to jingle my bear/hunter bells often. Sometimes Lilly thinks a bell jingling means she should speed up. Umm, no, brumby, absolutely not.

 So one piece of advice I have for my fellow brumbyteers: Always carry carrots. Because if you had not already noticed, they are safety orange. The more orange you have on and around your brumby, the better. Carrots also offer electrolytes (which we all already know), and there is yet one more thing a carrot can do. Do you know how all the natural horsemanship trainers talk about lateral flexion? Well, what better way to practice luring your brumby's big ole head around to your knee? With a carrot of course! Works like a charm.

I get a lot of comments on my pink suit. I figure along with safety orange, wearing 100% pink in the woods will perhaps make me look like a strange creature of sorts, but certainly not a deer. Today I was warm except for my hands. Once that sun even begins to think of dropping down, it gets cold. So my hands were cold by 2pm. Lilly is wearing her Renegades (barely visible here), but they are slippery so Bill said he would put some studs in them. (Thank you, Bill, Horseman of all Horsemen). 

Before my hands started to get cold, I was really having a great ride. The snow was beautiful, the air wasn't bitter and harsh. No bugs, no hunters, no surprises. Well, there was that turn in the trail where Lilly wanted to go left and I wanted to go right, and she gave a little tantrum of a kick to let me know. And then another. I thought of Guy McLean saying to never yell because then you will seem like a predator. So I said, very matter-of-factly, Listen, Brumby, I am no predator. But when I am on your back, you will do whatever I ask you to. Do you think she understood these words?? Umm, no. She carried on until I pushed her through her tantrum. Her crisis. I was only slightly worried because my pink puffy pants aren't made for horseback riding and are slippery in the saddle. I thought I might slip out of it. Swoooosh, plop! With all these clothes on I just don't feel agile and rooted.  Anyway, it's a corner in the trail that Pokey always uses to act up too. Naughty, predictable horses. The reason they want to turn left instead of right is because they know the Big Pasture is right around the corner from there. And all they want to do is be with the other horses running free. (I can't begrudge them that.)

My brumby was a total Snow Nibbler on this ride. 

On the last leg of our journey, we finally passed the pasture that Lilly was so anxious to get to earlier. I saw Cody and Jody in there. Here Jody is looking like a tiny miniature horse on the top of my brumby's head.

Before I go, I have a link to a 10 second video clip. Bill's been having trouble in the chicken coop lately, and he finally caught the instigator. Watch this video to see the formidable and magical culprit.