Sunday, August 10, 2014

Jelly in the Creek

After our lesson, I rode Jelly down to Hansen Dam. We followed some Mexican cowboys down the wash, underneath the 210 and meandered down through the willow towards the creek. It's a tiny creek, about 12 feet wide and only a couple of feet deep, but Jelly thought it was the devil incarnate and would NOT cross it. I tried everything, on him, off him, coaxing with grass and watercress, using a leafy willow branch to smack him on the bum, I cooed, I clicked, I chatted, nothing worked. And finally I gave up, jumped off and waded (in my good boots) into the middle of the water where I stood staring at him, under a shady tree. He stared back, sighed, dropped his head, and then leapt in, right on top of me, landing right on my little toe of my right foot. I was so delighted that I didn't really hear the crunch of the bones breaking. Only now I'm hobbling about a bit.
Here he is in the stream. As you can imagine, he didn't want to get out. Heraclitus would have something to say about this, I'm sure.




5 comments:

Dahlila said...

Wonderful! What a handsome man & so much more cooperative. :)

westendmum said...

Ouch, do we get a pic of the toe?
WEM
x

Michele Hush said...

Ouch? Sorry about your toe AND your boots. But well done with the horse whispering.

Anonymous said...

My trainer always did that with my young horses to get them to jump easily into water - they love it ever afterwards! Jelly is beautiful - sorry about the toe, Rachel

Julie Mangano said...

I love the video of Jelly in the creek. He looks like he's having a wonderful time!