The Tale of the Dancing Slaughter Horse by Shade Victoria;

Author:Shade, Victoria;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Childhood and youth, horses, human-animal relationships, horsewomen, training horses, personal memoirs, autobiography, dressage, New York
ISBN: 9780997237764
Publisher: Amberjack Publishing
Published: 2016-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

27

August arrived and we shipped off for the Regionals. Richard finally realized that it was easier to let me load my own horse. Moonshine followed me into the trailer without any pressure on the lead rope. We walked shoulder to shoulder everywhere, even up the trailer’s steep loading ramp.

When we arrived at the show, Carol told me to take it easy in schooling Moonshine, since it had been a long trip, and he might be sore and stiff. She said I should just do relaxing work like letting him stretch his head down, at the walk, trot, and canter. No collection, she ordered. I was nervous about not doing a full workout the day before the show—it was sort of like not studying the night before a test. But I did whatever Carol said.

The next day, Moonshine was relaxed, fluid, and elegant in his first test. To reward him, I untacked him and led him out to graze. I wanted to watch the top riders performing in the more advanced levels, so I led Moonshine out to graze by the main show ring. There was a crowd seated on the grassy hill around the arena, watching the performances below. I was instantly captivated by the beauty and elegance with which they rode and their horses moved. I let the lead rope slacken so Moony would stop pulling me while he looked for good patches of grass. I didn’t want to be distracted from watching the show. Then, all of a sudden, he started charging right into the crowd of people sitting on the grass, causing them to jump up and run out of his way.

“Moonshine, STOP!” I whispered loudly, horrified that he was stampeding these innocent bystanders. I could do nothing to stop him. I dug my heels into the ground and threw all my weight back, pulling against the lead rope, but he continued to plow through to wherever it was that he wanted to go. The mayhem in the crowd caught the attention of the horse performing in the arena. The horse spooked, and took off.

Holy shit! I thought, horrified and humiliated.

Luckily, the horse was being ridden by a skilled rider, who managed to regain control, and resumed her test. She shot me an angry glare.

I wanted to run away and crawl into a hole.

“Damn it, Moonshine! Come on, we’re going!” I said as I pulled him back to the barn. I was humiliated. Moonshine, on the other hand, did not seem to care, and followed me nonchalantly back to the show barn.

I was frustrated and furious, and unfortunately, those emotions did not subside quickly. I was angry all the way into the next day, so any little thing that Moonshine did now was totally unforgivable. Our performance on that day was lackluster, even for us. I knew we could have done better, but I was too angry to “ride smart,” as Carol put it, and Moonshine just didn’t care, as usual.

__________

After my last class, I declared to my mother, “I’m quitting, this is pointless.

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.