Horsin' Around

Sunday found Mare and me riding Jazz out in the mile long field across the road (not exactly trespassing - there's no sign against it). Opening her up in a long flat field, she has a chance to prove her lineage (Mary got on the internet and, tracing her lineage back, found that she is a descendant of the Great Kings of her species: among them Seabiscuit, and therefore Man'O War and The Godolfin Arabian; Hastings, a famous horse who also claimed fame as a mankiller (10 people), also a triple crown winner (there have only been 7). All that means is that we got a really good deal on a really good horse. But we knew that already.

I had broken a stirrup a couple of weeks ago, so we had to ride bareback (meaning we have a speed limit of about half her max speed). Finally we got a new stirrup and we were able to make the dirt fly again. I wish this little clip showed her at her fastest and not as i was slowing her down at the end of the field, but she still has some speed. She can clear the mile long field with little coaxing from being a little speck at one end to a little speck at the other in +/-40 seconds

Let me explain this one: my hat (the wild waving of which gets her going her fastest) had flown off my head a moment before, so I went back to retrieve it. Upon finding it, I jumped off. And then Jazz thought it would be funny to play a little game of tag. Mary found it hilarious. I, as I yell at the end, don't think its so funny.

Mary and Jazz. Mary is working wonders with her three charges. Her goal for the summer is to get Banjo trained well enough that we can go on a ride together to the lake, her on Banjo and I on Jazz. I am skeptical, but if anyone can do it, Mary can.

The other day I came home to find Andrew chuckling devilishly while looking out the window. Following his gaze, there was Mary, working with Jazz in the round pen. She had a little rope around Jazz's waist and was gently tugging on it in a coaxing sort of way. Andrew explained that he had laid a large sum of money, $2.50, on the bet that she could not train Jazz to lay down on the ground on command by the 4th of July. "She will never get that horse to plop down on the ground with a little rope like that! She is crazy!" He walked away gleefully. Not ten seconds later, Jazz obediently laid her thousand pound body on the ground with a heave. "Andrew," I called, even more gleefully, "better go get your two and fifty. Jazz stayed there calmly 5 minutes until mary told her to get up.

I like this horse... A lot, if you cannot tell.