Happy Happy Happy

Today was perfect. I love my ponies. They are the best, and know exactly how to make my day even better.

I had an amazing ride on John Wayne. I can tell he is going to be such a star. We had such a good ride, seriously. It has left me feeling happy all day. He was a little nervous when we got into the barn, because Lucky Luke was running the fence and calling out to him. But with some loving words, he quickly calmed down. I messed around with his ears today, throwing the reins over his head multiple times until he calmed down, because he got majorly freaked out about that yesterday. Our ride was wonderful. We worked first on lots of bending. My main goal of our ride was to get him bending off my leg nicely, and I can say we accomplished that! I also wanted him to feel comfortable enough to stretch out some more, and he was great about that as well! At that trot, we did about a million and a half circles of varying sizes. I also taught him how to lengthen his side down the long side of the arena, and then shorten it around the shorter side. This was a bit of a task, because at the beginning of our ride, he thought let meant "GO INTO NEXT GAIT" and sitting back/deeper meant "slow down into lower gait!". Interesting observation about polo horses. He is so responsive, I can ride him almost strictly off my seat! Canter work, we practiced not giving me a heart attack going around the corners. I do not like motorcycle turns, thank you very much. He was also a lot better about getting his leads today, and picked up the canter immediately today. Heather came down to the ring briefly, and set up some poles and a tiny cross rail for me; I had been planning on doing strictly flat work, but we went over the poles a few times. He was so excited about it today, and was jumping the cross rail, even though it was legit only like 6 inches. We finished the ride with some trotting and cantering in the field. I really love this horse!

After that ride, I set out on the very long adventure that was calling the horses. It took me forever to have them come! I basically walked around the field calling for them before they finally came running... Which of course was very pretty to watch.

But, it meant I was short on time! I contemplated just doing join up with Gambler and then grazing him, but I decided to ride... Bareback!

This was the first time I have ridden Gambler bareback! I was not sure what he would think, but he was great! He was also really good about me getting on him today, which made me very happy; it was the beginning to a perfect ride! Seriously. He was perfect. And I cried because he was so amazing. True story.

I can't even begin to put into words how amazing this horse is. He is my everything (aside from Jesus). It just blows my mind, thinking about how amazing this horse is. He has been the light in my dark, he is always there, to make me smile, even if it's through some tears. And no matter how much he frustrates me, I am utterly head over heels in love with this animal. After Hunter, I never ever thought I would find that one horse who completes me again. But I did, in Gambler. He can make the worst day perfect. Just seeing him, or that flip flop feeling in my heart when he's galloping with the herd, but then sees me and comes over, and puts his head on my shoulder. And he is just so freaking amazing. I don't care if we run around the field for the rest of our lives, and never win a single ribbon. I don't. Because the fact that we have beat so many odds, the fact that we are still together after so much, is priceless to me. I have almost lost this animal so many times. And even something happens tomorrow, and we lose each other.... Well, the fact that I have had all of these precious moments with him makes it okay.

I was thinking today... really thinking. About how far we've come. When I got Gambler, he had been to death's door already. I saw it in him. He was a bag of bones, a sad, pathetic, pile of bones. And then he got fat on my love. And he frustrated me beyond measure. The first week I had him, I almost gave up. And then we started getting somewhere. But then that came to a halt, because of his injury. And those two months that he was in King George? It changed my life, absolutely, forever. Those were the best two months of my life. Which is proof that there is always a silver lining, you just have to look for it. After that one long month of stall rest, he started his training again. I got to put his first ride on him, first trot, first canter. Then, we were all alone again once we moved back up here. But things were good, great even, for a while. Until the person who was originally going to adopt him passed away. It shook me to the core, and broke me into a million pieces. I didn't want Gambler anymore. I almost gave him away. But then God sent someone into our lives who helped me fix us, and put the pieces back together. And there have been hard days since then. Days when I thought I was going to lose him. People have doubted us, told me I was stupid to get myself into this. I doubted us, I almost gave up. But his nicker, him laying his head on my shoulder, his goofy self... It makes me realize how crazy I was. He still frustrates me. The reason I rode bareback today is because I didn't want to deal with his shenanigans of tacking up. We still have far to go, many things to learn. But right now, I am so happy with him. And I love him. And so I felt the need to write a huge sappy paragraph summing up the roller coaster of my horse ownership. With sentences that start with the word "and", sentences that are poorly formed. Moving on.

But really. This animal. He is just amazing. Even on his worst days, he's more amazing then I ever will be. Our ride today? Best ride I have ever had on him. I blasted my country music, sang along... and then just rode in silence, with my eyes closed tight, me hugging his neck and letting him wander around the ring where he wanted (he walked over to the gate, grabbed onto it with his teeth, and stepped back, as if he were trying to open it. Do you see why he's so freaking perfect for me? His personality is hilarious and goofy, I love) and thanking Jesus and telling my horse how much I loved him.

And here's the icing on the cake. I walked Gambler around the field a little bit before going up. Feeling adventerous, I decided we should trot up the hill (I had already trotted around in the ring). Well, we get to the bottom of the hill, and I could feel Gambler wanting to run, but waiting for me to give the signal. So I let him. And it was amazing. This is what horse ownership is about. I have never felt closer to my horse before. I got off him, and hugged him, and maybe cried a little. Because this is the bag of bones I bought last year. The one people said I couldn't train. Look at us now. <3