My Silly Old Man and His Ward

This is Hershie (left) along side Sophie-Anne (right):

He literally taught me how to ride and I've known him now for six years now. Since he taught me to ride I figured I owed it to him to teach him something, so I taught him leg and seat cues and we now ride bareback and bridleless. He is a giant sweet heart and no matter what I ask of him, he's always willing and ready to rise to the occasion. I had all of my cousins over a few months back and all four of them, ranging in age from one to five, got on his back and posed for a picture. The five year old even took him for a ride in the pasture by herself, after I convinced the two year old to let go of his leg so that he'd walk and got the one year old far enough away that he'd quit huggin' and kissin' on her. :lol: He loves kids.

Sophie-Anne is my hobble horse, she is my first baby that I started. At first she was untouchable, but within two weeks she was lunging at liberty and moving her hips and shoulders independently when asked. That was two years ago. A few months after I received her she managed to injure herself, Radial Paralysis of the right fore leg (severely damaged muscle and nerve). It took three months for her to start using the leg as a crutch and responding to stimuli. Now you'd never even guess that the leg is any different unless you got up close and saw the size difference of the hooves and muscles, which are slowly evening out. The shoulder still has a dip to it but the chest muscle has come a long way and is only a hair smaller than the left side now. And don't let her fool you, she can still take off like a shot, rear, and kick some hiney when she wants to.

Anyhow, I just wanted to introduce the community to my spoiled horses. And express my excitement in that I will be getting my senior pictures taken with them soon. I'm hoping that the photographer will feel comfortable enough to allow me to do some bareback and bridleless stuff with my old man, but I'm not positive (my friend recently got hers done with some bareback stuff, but her horse is a nut so a halter and lead were mandatory). I even checked with Hersh earlier and he's cool with it. We ran up and down the paddock and practiced our stops, the consensus: he's still got it, even at eighteen years old.

Wow, that's so awesome. I knew that you could ride a horse without tack, but I've never seen anyone actually do it in person. I imagine it's fascinating.

What gorgeous horses.

Hershie looks like he has many stories to tell.

Cspr, it is indeed for all involved. I especially love the looks we get from younger kids, they're always so excited to graduate to bareback riding that when they see me riding with nothing they get that spark in their eyes and you just know that they've got a new goal in mind.

Marinea, Thank you, I do adore them and keep them well groomed (never spotless though, that'd be silly, they love dust bathes). And he really is an old soul of sorts. When he gets stuck he just stands there and waits for me to untangle him. If he steps wrong and his fetlock is sore, he'll offer me that foot when I come out so that I'll know to ice it. He's really a very good communicator.

And the date is set for my photography session! Both of my brats will be coming along and the photographer confirmed that he can do just about anything, so I'm hoping for some shots of Hersh and me galloping or loping bareback and bridleless. As well as a kissy shot with Sophie because she is just a love with me and she's the only horse I've met that 'kisses' back (she grabs my lips with hers when I kiss her muzzle).