What is the dumbest thing you ever did with a horse?

Just sharing a blooper from my past. Enjoy!

I will start, so no one has to be the first to raise thier hand. HMMMM...which to choose, I have soooooooooooooo many. ok ok ok....swallow any food you have in your mouth...this one is a hum dinger. (that's "really funny" for all you youngsters out there) When i was a kid, 16 I believe, I was given this 17hh (yes 17hh) 3yr old TB. he was not started for the track due to leg problems, due to his abnormal growth. Not too long before this, the black stallion movie had come out....in theaters....that'll age me if nothing else does. I went to the wash rack with him to give him a bath and he was afraid of the mud puddle at the edge and wouldn't go thru it. I tried everything my puny, uneducated brain could muster and it was all a no go. So, having just watched the brilliantly "written" scene, where they blind fold the Black on the ship to get him to follow them thru fire, i figured that this was a time honored and widely accepted training method, and followed suit. I came back the next day with a pillow case, tied it to his halter, and viola! He went thru the mud puddle and into the wash rack. I just knew I was on to something. At that moment, I WAS a horse whisperer and thus...(as if that whole thing wasn't stupid enough) I Decided that I had a much more deserving equestrian challenge that required my new found horsemanship skills to conquer.

Ya'See... I had been having trouble with getting him to go into a certain corner of the arena..............while RIDING . Sooooooooo... I tacked him up, pillow case and all, and rode him in the arena. Wait.....there's MORE....this tale barely has happy ending.... It had been going so well at the WAAALK...I figured I was really onto something, soooooo I decided to T..T..TROT Again young and trusting Apricot (I don't know why I never changed his name, a 17hh horse named after the teeniest member of the peach family....oh I get it ) conceded to my bidding, and graciously proceded in the loveliest of trots that a 16yo girl has ever ridden in her life. Round and round we went, gay as two love birds in spring right thru the very scary horse eating corner that had plagued us for so many riding sessions.

Now this is where the story turns dumb .....eh'hem....Ya'See....I had been having a bit of dificulty getting him to canter previously, and as my new found skills were abounding, ......I decided to tackle this challenge as well. (you do remember my horse is blindfolded don't you?) And considering this is the first horse I had ever colt started, I do believe that a certain degree of respect be given me for training a horse so willing to follow my.... 'er'hem ....lead?

Apricot hesitantly picked up the canter, (I know, it's so stupid I can barely believe it myself) We cantered in harmony like Alec and the Black on the beach, until.............(of course there is an until, if not this would not have been a dumb story!) One teeny tiny hair on his muzzle grazed the fence rail and he came to a screeeeeching halt. I however did not! I landed on the fence on my back (luckily not breaking it) and ooooozed down the rails to the ground. When I awoke....gazing thru the fog...I see, Standing over me, my trusting steed, snorting and blowing. I lay there, staring thru my somewhat broken and no longer so rosie glasses, at my mothers paisly pillow case, thinking......(you guessed it)

.....THIS....... may NOT...... have been...... such a good.... idea??

I scrapped the whole concept up to awesome movie special effects, and told my mother nothing of my bruises or my tear stains in her pillow case. Now kids......and any adults pondering ANY brilliant ideas at this very moment......... Do NOT try this at home!

You see this is actually a story about guardian angels, and how mine, who btw can only fly as fast as a trot, not a canter, took a coffee break that day, seeing how things were going so well at the trot! I know the mind reels at my insanely high level of stupidity, but I do have more stories of the same high caliber, award winning stupidity, that they should give medals for!

Savvy On
Michelle