"A horse? You have to be kidding me, right?" was Ty's response.
"I was afraid of that… You have never ridden, have you?" asked Amy.
Ty's manly pride started to kick in as he gave her his curt reply.
"What is so hard about riding a stupid horse? I can ride a bike, so riding a horse should not be a problem."
Amy wanted so badly to tell Ty that horses could sense fear, and after the way he had acted with Paint this morning, she knew that there was at least a little fear in him. But she decided to withhold judgment as she had seen some people who took right to riding.
"Okay. You can help me saddle those two up", she said, pointing to the two horses standing in their stalls.
"No problem," replied Ty. He stood there as Amy opened the door of the stall and walked in. She held out a small carrot in the palm of her hand and called the horse by name before reaching up and hooking the strap to his halter and led him out. She walked over to the wall and pulled down a brush and a funny looking thing with a handle and short metal teeth. She then went back to the horse she had tied to a rope across and open area in the barn.
Amy had been watching Ty to see what he would do and when she started to curry and brush her horse out, she looked at him and said: "What are you waiting for? He is not going to come out of the stall by himself."
"You want me to go in there with him to bring him out?" Ty asked.
"I don't know of any other way for him to get out. He has not learned how to open the door yet, so yes I guess you have to go bring him out," said Amy as she tried to hide her smile by keeping her horse between her and Ty. She had been with her mom this morning, jumping all over Jack for pulling the stunt he had, but she had to admit she loved to tease him as well.
She watched as Ty took the strap from the nail by the door and slowly opened the door, before closing it quickly and turning to Amy. "Do I need to feed him a carrot too? And if I do, how do I hold it? Like you did in your palm or by the end like your mom did by this morning?"
Amy found herself impressed by how observant Ty had been. The fact that he had thought about it enough to ask went beyond him being frightened of the horse.
"Yeah, that always helps. There are some more, over on the grain bin. I usually break it up and put it in the palm of my hand, but if you are more comfortable doing like mom did, that is fine as well."
Ty picked up the carrot and opened the door of the stall again and stepped in. When the horse started towards him he had to fight the urge to step back out of the stall and close the gate. but He could not let Amy see that he was in fact at least a little scared by these big animals. Ty held out the carrot and then stepped to the side as he had seen Amy do before he hooked the lead strap into the halter, and was surprised as he walked out that the horse followed him without him even having to tug on the lead. He walked up to the place where Amy was finishing her grooming, and so she removed the tethers from her horse and led him away, leaving the space open to Ty and his horse. Ty did as Amy had and tethered the horse. He then picked up the brush and curry comb and proceeded to do what he had seen.
"Don't be worried about the curry comb, they actually like it. You can push pretty hard, kind of like a big back scratcher to them. It also removes all the stuff from their coat that could make a sore when you place the pad and saddle on him," Amy told him.
When he had finished, Ty walked over to where the saddles were and asked: "which one is one for that horse?"
Amy smiled and shook her head.
"Let's see… I think that one will fit you fine. The saddle is not for the horse, it is for the rider. You have to have the stirrups set for you. While having long stirrups may sound good, your butt will not agree with you at the end of the if they are too short, you will either be standing up all day and your legs will let you know about that as well, or you will sit all day and… well, we have talked about that. Your stirrups should be short enough so that you can stand up in them and clear the saddle. Every person has their own idea of what is right, but at the end of the day your legs and butt will tell you if you were right in the setting. Of course you will be sore no matter what when we get back as this is all new to your body."
Ty liked the way Amy had taken the time to tell him about the saddle and stirrup setting without making him feel like the fool for asking about the saddle the way he had.
"I guess I can I can understand that. I know when I first started riding off road on my bike, my legs killed me. I guess it might be a little the same way with a horse," Ty said.
Talking to Amy had helped to settle him down a bit and so he picked up the saddle she had pointed to and carried it over to the horse. He had watched Amy, so he threw the blanket up and then the saddle, and just as he reached under the horse for the cinch, Amy spoke again as she walked over to him.
"Ty, remove the saddle please."
When he had done as he was asked, Amy readjusted the pad moving it a bit more forward on his withers and then told Ty to center the saddle on the pad.
"You had the saddle too far back and would have made him sore if you had ridden him long with it like that. You can tighten up the cinch now."
Ty reached under the horse and pulled the cinch strap to his side and then did as he had seen Amy do.
Amy walked over and got a bridle with a bit on it and went to put it on her horse, so Ty figuring that what was good for the saddle was also good for the bit. He reached up to take down the bridle and was stopped by Amy.
"No, he does not use a bit. We only use a hackamore on him."
This made Ty stop as he looked at the wall.
"What's a hackamore…?"
"See the leather rapped loop with a ball on the bottom of it? That is a hackamore
"It does not look much different from the halter he already has on,"Ty said.
"That is true, but he would know the difference. Nice thing about it is that it is a bit - no pun intended - easier to put on."
Amy had finished with her horse, so she went over to give Ty a hand. When they were finished, Ty was proud of himself and was actually looking forward to try riding for the first time. Ty had watched Marion and Jack swing up on the horse, so he started to put his foot in the stirrup when Amy stopped him - again.
"Whoa there, cowboy! First of all, you need to wear this," Amy told him as she handed him a helmet.
"What is that for? Jack was not wearing one nor was Marion, and I don't see one in your hand for you either, so what makes you think I am going to wear that thing?" replied Ty with a bit of disgust in his voice.
"Just trying to protect that pretty little head of yours when you fall off," chuckled Amy.
"Don't you mean IF I fall off…" Ty muttered.
"I always tell beginners that they need a helmet. You would be surprised how many beginners end up on the ground, it is a safety precaution just in case so you won't possibly get a head injury," Amy explained calmly.
"I thank you for looking out for me, but I will take the responsibility for my own head," Ty said.
"Well, don't say I didn't tell you," Amy replied, shaking her head as she hung the helmet back on the wall. When she turned around, she saw Ty foot in stirrup, getting ready to mount. Before she could say "stop!", Ty put his weight in the stirrup and started to swing up, only to find himself headed for the ground as the saddle twisted and ended up on the horses side instead of his back.
"Sorry!" she said, trying to hold back the laugh. "I should have told you the other thing… Some horses take a deep breath when you start to tighten up the cinch and Pegasus clearly did, so you always have to check and re-tighten it if you need to before you try to mount or what happened to you will happen, or worse you will be on his back when he lets out the breath and your saddle will turn while you are riding. That usually does not happen when you are sitting still."
Lying on his back, his head only inches away from the horses hoof, Ty looked up and exclaimed: "You trying to get me killed? I should have had a helmet on, I could have gotten hurt!" This was all he could think of to say at the moment. He wanted to be angry, but had to admit that Amy had tried to warn him and he had decided he knew it all. He was quickly finding out that there was more to riding horse than just jumping in the saddle and he would try and be a little more cooperative from now on. Well, at least till he had figured it out a bit more, anyway.
Getting to his feet, Ty looked at Amy as she tried to hide the smile that tried to cover her laughter. "Thought that was funny, didn't you?"
"Well, not till I saw you were okay, but yes, it was rather comical!" chuckled Amy before she saw the smile and Ty making a face at her. She finally let it out, laughing so hard she had to sit down.
Ty started to laugh with her as he thought of what she must have seen.
"Is there anything more you want to tell me before I try this again…?"
"Maybe you should start with putting the saddle back on his back, then wait till we get outside and then tighten it again. Also, I guess I should tell you that Pegasus is a bit older, but he was a rodeo horse that belonged to my dad. So you best be aware; he starts quickly, stops almost quicker and has been known to turn on a dime and give you 9 cents change. As I think about it, maybe we should switch horses and you should ride Copper. Here, he might be a little more your speed", she said, handing him the reins.
"Oh, so you want to take the sport bike and give me the scooter, is that what you are saying?" said Ty, feeling his manly pride starting to kick in again. "Well, I think I will stick with Pegasus. After all, you said he was a man's horse."
"Suit yourself," replied Amy, realizing she should have traded horses to start with, but also knowing that there would be no taking Pegasus now.
They walked outside the barn and she watched as Ty gave and extra tug on the cinch to make sure it was good and tight. She had picked up the tool bag for fixing the fence and tied it behind the saddle on Copper and then swung up in the saddle. Waiting till Ty had done the same, they started down the lane.
"See? There is nothing to this," said Ty, sitting in the saddle, feeling like he had it all figured out. This was kind of fun, he thought to himself. Why are we going so slow? She said he was fast. But how fast was that? he wondered. Ty had seen a few western movies, and so he pulled his legs out and kicked them in, saying "get-up!"
He thought he heard Amy say "don't!", but it was too late, and Ty was grasping for the saddle horn as Pegasus had almost jumped out from under him as he went from a slow walk to full speed in almost one jump. Panic was setting in and Ty remembered what they did when this happened, as he had seen it on the movies, so hanging on the horn with one hand - still not back in the saddle - he pulled on the reins and yelled "whoa!". Pegasus did as he was trained, he sat on his rear legs coming to a skidding stop and Ty continued over his head, luckily landing on the grassy side of the road with a thud.
This time Amy was scared as she kicked Copper into action and rushed to where Ty had hit the pulled Copper up, swinging down from the saddle, just in time to see Ty sitting up to watch her.
"Guess I should learn to get off like you the next time, huh?" he said, looking down a little embarrassed. "You still want to trade horses?"
...To be continued...