A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Carver

Author:Sonora Carver [Carver, Sonora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5154-0811-6
Publisher: Dancing Unicorn Books
Published: 2016-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

Ten

The new horse showed his true colors on the following morning when Al began his training. Contrary to what we had expected, he did not display the slightest resentment toward the halter or lead rope when they were put on him. What was more, he went up the ramp to the low platform as if he had been doing it all his Me. When he got to the front he stood there for a moment and then, with only the suggestion of a pull on the rope from Al, slid his feet down on the kickoff board and dived.

Very possibly there have never been two more astonished people in the world. Then, in mortal fear that the first dive was a fluke, Al sent him up again. But again he came off as smoothly as a veteran. Furthermore, he had style, grace, fire, and form and worked with the greatest enthusiasm. Within a few weeks’ time he was doing as well as horses that had been diving for months.

Ordinarily it takes about two years to train a horse fully. I do not mean that a horse cannot be diving from the forty-foot tower before that time, but it usually takes that long for him to become a consistently good performer in his particular style. Some horses are never successful, even though they have plenty of nerve, because they can’t get the knack of the take-off. Others seem unable to control their leg movements while in the air, and still others prove to be poor swimmers. (The latter begin to stroke with their forelegs only when they start up from the bottom of the tank, letting their back legs drag as weights. They usually try to overcome this error by stroking harder with their forefeet and, as a consequence, bring themselves up too high out of the water, lose their balance, and roll over.)

Happily, Red had none of these faults. He was not only a graceful diver but a good swimmer and quickly became so proficient that we decided we could put a rider on him well ahead of the customary period in a horse’s training. Thus his training could be speeded up; we would not only be teaching him to dive but to carry a rider as well.

To understand what this meant in relation to Red, it must be remembered that he reportedly had never allowed anyone on his back. We hadn’t the least idea what kind of fit he might throw when I mounted, and Al told me beforehand that if he showed any signs of misbehaving I should get off immediately and let him dive alone. But aside from one frosty look, everything went smoothly. I patted Red on the neck and talked to him in a quiet, reassuring voice, and after a few minutes he went over to the edge of the tower and dived.

From then on I went out every morning and rode him in his training dives until it was time for us to leave for the fairs, the first of which was in upstate New York.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.