Those of us with full-sized horses enjoy the partnership of sharing a ride with them. If you have ever watched a horse buck and careen around like a wild mustang, you have to wonder why they let us get on their backs at all!
Carol and I both support, care for and ride our full-sized equines, and after a summer of getting to know Styx and Louie, we thought, “why not try it?”
The following is a pictorial of our cautious experiment.
Carol and Louie both leading Styx into Susie’s huge, beautiful indoor arena.
“Louie, I overheard the intention of those two. The first clue was they are wearing helmets. This opening appears to be an escape route. What is your opinion?”
“Days obviously got a scheme dat involves us. Im outta heah.”
I’ve watched cowboys try to ‘break a horse to saddle’ throwing two tires roped together to simulate the weight of a human and saddle. The horse ends up terrified and tries anything to remove the ‘predator’ from his back. We approached the boys differently.
Carol gently adds weight first, to Louie’s back. Then she tries Styx. Both donkeys are friends of Carol and neither said a word until………
“What da heck! The tall one jus draped herself on my back. Run Styx!”
“Oh Gawd, she’s hanging all da way ovah and touching my legs! Im notta fan.”
We decided that Styx’ politeness and height was more appropriate for our first (and only,) ‘ride.’
Carol and I laughed a lot and praise the boys for their bravery.
Their facial expressions clearly mirrored their opinions.
No donkeys or humans were hurt during the making of these pictures.
To be continued……
Stories & Pictures 