When I was young, Saintly Brother taught his horse to rear in the style of the Lone Ranger. Of course his mare was named Silver, and he also taught her to bow. He made Silver a trick horse. They were quite a pair.
One day when I was a teenager my friends and I got bored. Yes, it's me, not Lily, who is/was the truly obnoxious teenage horse girl.
We decided to use Silver's rearing trick to fool passersby into thinking that one of us (we took turns) had fallen off a rearing horse and gotten hurt. We wanted to see if people would stop to help. We'd get on Silver, get her to rear, and fall off. No one stopped, probably because three girls laughing their heads off don't appear too damaged. But Silver got tired of this trick and her rears got less and less spectacular.
So on my next turn, I asked her to rear so high that I pulled her over backwards. I fell off to the side. She landed on her back, crushing the saddle tree and flattening the cantle. Silver was thankfully all right, and I never did it again.
It didn't scare me then as much as it should have. But now I have a better understanding of physics and I can only be thankful that God looks after fools, such as I once was, and in many ways, still am.
Yikes! You spent your youth rearing on Silver, landing on the ground and calling it fun. Wow!
I thought I was brave when I let go of the saddle!
Posted by: Strawberry Lane | October 14, 2008 at 06:34 PM
I was well acquainted with the ground, having landed there so often.
Posted by: smellshorsey | October 14, 2008 at 08:21 PM
Oh My! I so would have gotten my butt beat for training a horse to rear. But we did play cowboys and indians, where we would sneak through the trees on our ponies and then charge one another. The indians were expected to jump on the cowboy and knock him off his pony. The cowboys could shoot the indians and the indian had to fall off his pony. We always had to draw straws and the short straw had to be the indian. Because don't you know-the cowboy always won-LOL.
Posted by: BrownEyedCowgirls | October 14, 2008 at 11:54 PM
I'm sure glad to hear that no one was hurt, you,your friends or the horse. I don't think I would have had the nerve to try that and I know I wouldn't have been allowed to do it either.
Posted by: greyhorsematters | October 15, 2008 at 08:23 PM
Wow, you are lucky you weren't hurt. Glad to hear the horse was ok.
Posted by: risingrainbow | October 17, 2008 at 05:11 AM
Hi Ann,
If you're in the mood for a Halloween game, guess what you've been ghostly tagged. Come on over for the details if you dare.
Posted by: greyhorsematters | October 23, 2008 at 02:14 PM
Actually I can remember doing similar actions when I was young (er). lol!
My sister at 55 years old had a horse rear up and over backwards onto her a couple of years ago. She was beaten and battered pretty bad, but no bones broken. The mare got scared I guess..., she turned vicious not long after and my niece had to have her put down.
Posted by: Gimme A Dream (Wynn Currie) | January 18, 2009 at 05:32 PM