Apr 30 2009
Old Vic takes on kid’s horse qualities in 4-H
Old Vic had the qualities of a perfect kid’s horse as well. He proved that at a 4-H training clinic and it didn’t end there.
My 3 learned to ride on him while he was only 5 and 6 years old. He taught them more than I did I think. He would argue with them about what he would and wouldn’t do. I have had fights with him over different things from time to time; didn’t feel like leaving home today, that bush or that rock looked particularly lethal etc.. I have had to use both hands on the reins to control his head and boot the bejaizus out of him (I didn’t wear spurs back then) to make him do what I wanted when he got overly obstinate. He’d do the same thing to those kids, but, if they persisted, he’d do as they wished. Now, you can’t tell me those kids could exert the same kind of skill and/or force as I did, so, he let them win. And this was all bareback. I made them learn to ride bareback before they got a saddle. It meant a lot of fences put to use and they didn’t usually get off until they got back home; remember, Vic stood 16 hands. But they learned. And they rarely fell off.
Of course, I pretty much set the example. I rode bareback most of the time myself. On a hot day I merely threw a saddle blanket over the horse’s back to keep the sweat off me. And it’s a lot warmer in winter, with no straps and buckles to deal with when you get home and your hands are stiff and cold.
Back to the story. My friend’s son had a 7 year old who wanted to join 4-H with my kids and the rest of their friends. The family had a horse but she was in foal and due about the same time as the 4-H finals so they borrowed Vic. Aaron had to climb up the saddle to get on, and get help to do the bareback event, but he was game.
Vic took care of him and did things for him he wouldn’t do for anyone else.
The fun started when a learning clinic was arranged with people who had an outside arena. A professional was brought in to teach the kids how to teach their horses how to do the things they needed to accomplish for the finals.
All was going well, a few comments on how big that horse was. He was 16 and almost white by that time so he stood out among the bays and sorrels in the arena. I guess having such a small rider didn’t spoil the illusion much either.
The clinic went well until they went to bring the teeter-totter apparatus into the arena. It was a heavy wooden device that the horses were supposed to walk up on until they overbalanced the far end and it dropped. They were supposed to stay calm and walk off the other end. That presented a few interesting moments later, but first it had to get from one end of the arena to the other.
The boy who lived at that farm, riding a small Arab cross gelding, went to try to pull the device over to it’s position. That poor little horse was almost down on his belly trying to pull, but in the worked-up soil of the arena, no chance. Aaron rode over to offer his assistance and I saw the problem coming. Now, you’ll remember that Vic doesn’t like bulls, and by this time he had been over-pulled at the pasture and refused to pull off the saddle-horn at all. I was sitting in the stands more than 1/2 the arena away from where this was going on. To make matters worse, there was a brisk little breeze blowing from them to me and even though I’ve got a roar like a bull moose when necessary, I couldn’t yell loud enough to be heard. Before I could get close enough to be heard, Aaron had the rope around his saddle horn and while visions of mayhem ran through my frantic head, Vic pulled that teeter-totter clear across the areana without so much as a twitch. Only for a kid would he have done it. Not even for me would he have condecended to pull that thing without a fight.
