Читать книгу Finding the Missed Path. The Art of Restarting Horses онлайн

56 страница из 72

As a result, I began searching for, and eventually found, a nice ranch gelding with the size and abilities I was looking for. He was named Cooper. Like all our new horses, we took care of any physical issues, had his teeth and feet balanced, found him a saddle that fit, and eventually took him out on the road with us.

Cooper did very well with all aspects of his new job as a clinic horse during that first trip. He was good around other horses, he didn’t worry if I had to pony another horse off him, or throw a rope, or use him to help demonstrate a certain movement or technique. In fact, he did so well that most folks who saw him thought he had been traveling with me for years.

We had done four clinics in four different venues during the first month I had him when, on one of our days off at our final stop in Wisconsin, I decided to get Cooper out and go for a little ride. He and I rode around the trails on the farm for an hour or so without any hint of a problem. We arrived back at the farm’s arena around mid-afternoon and with it being mid-week and a bit warm at that, there were no other riders in the arena. I decided to take Cooper in the arena and finish up our ride by doing a little loping, something we had not had a chance to do much of since we owned him.