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In your defense, you have to be a DARN good rider to make an experienced dude-totin' horse do what you want them to do. They have seen it all and nothing much really impresses them. Kick and yank all you want, they'll keep doing what they feel like doing. Horses either respect you or they don't, and trail horses put 99% of their riders in the 'don't' column.
At the dude ranch (this is getting to be like a this one time at band camp thing) we had a horse named Sundance who was reserved for rides with experienced riders who went out with the owner or the owner's son as a guide and did part of the ride at an actual gallop- more expensive, less safe, and you had the pedo Harley-riding ranch owner to deal with, but somehow still fairly popular. Anyway, Sundance was a bit of a head case, which is why he went on experienced rides only- he would dance and jig the whole way if he had to keep to a walk, and would jump when a plastic bag blew by even though he saw the same thing every day.
However, the thing about Sundance was, even though half the staff refused to do anything with him because he was 'nutty' and embarrassed them by not allowing them even to saddle him, there were a couple of people at the ranch who could walk up to him, jump up bareback, and take him almost anywhere. He was actually a favorite of mine, and a couple other people on staff. A confident, experienced rider gave HIM the confidence to calm down- and it had much more to do with attitude than anything specific about the rider's style. Another of his favorites had less than half my experience, but had the same 'It's all good, let's just go' attitude that calmed Sundance down.
At the dude ranch (this is getting to be like a this one time at band camp thing) we had a horse named Sundance who was reserved for rides with experienced riders who went out with the owner or the owner's son as a guide and did part of the ride at an actual gallop- more expensive, less safe, and you had the pedo Harley-riding ranch owner to deal with, but somehow still fairly popular. Anyway, Sundance was a bit of a head case, which is why he went on experienced rides only- he would dance and jig the whole way if he had to keep to a walk, and would jump when a plastic bag blew by even though he saw the same thing every day.
However, the thing about Sundance was, even though half the staff refused to do anything with him because he was 'nutty' and embarrassed them by not allowing them even to saddle him, there were a couple of people at the ranch who could walk up to him, jump up bareback, and take him almost anywhere. He was actually a favorite of mine, and a couple other people on staff. A confident, experienced rider gave HIM the confidence to calm down- and it had much more to do with attitude than anything specific about the rider's style. Another of his favorites had less than half my experience, but had the same 'It's all good, let's just go' attitude that calmed Sundance down.
Hi fellow horse lady who worked at a CO dude ranch.
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