Curly

I always get the horse that misbehaves. Always. My horse will be the one that refuses to cross the half-foot wide stream. They instinctively know that they are in charge and I am not. Curly was no exception. The horses on this trail ride mostly walked nose to tail. Except for Curly. I suspect he didn't like to be behind Buddy. Mark said Buddy was a delightful little horse. Curly was a known slacker.

While we were waiting for our horse "assignments", the stable owner asked who felt comfortable kicking a horse. No one came forward. At least one person (not me) argued that they would never kick a horse. I assure you, kicking horses - or any living creature - is not something I typically do.

So when the stable owner pointed at me, I had to ask "Do I look like someone who kicks horses?"

"No, but you look like someone who won't argue with me." (How did that happen??) But I do try to stay out of arguments when I know nothing about the subject. Horses fall into that category.

So there I was on Curly. It seemed I had a bit of extra equipment that the others didn't have. I had a leather strap. I was shown how to give Curly a little pop on his underbelly to make him pick up the pace. He did tend to get a bit behind. Giving him a little "kick" didn't seem to have much effect. But much to my surprise, when I picked up the strap, Curly took off and caught up with Buddy. I didn't even have to give him a pop.

The problem was that after the first 15 minutes, Curly realized that I wasn't really going to use that strap and he started slacking again. In the end I talked to Curly, poked him with my heels, and pretended like I was going to use the strap in order to cajole him into catching up to Buddy.

I wasn't particularly hard on him because I know what it's like to be rushed. I don't like it. I bet Curly doesn't like it either.