Photo Friday: Wannabe Cowgirl

Posted byAndi CarterPosted inJust for Fun

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You have permission to laugh your heads off.

Mrs. M has none of the skills her character, Andi, has. Well, I guess I can lope a horse, and I have never fallen off. But then, I don’t look all that great going around and around the corral. Case in point. Several years ago, I loped my grandson’s horse, Copper, around the round (sort of) pen. Then Kaetlyn and I loped around the huge pasture on both our horses. Copper used to be one of those horses “knights” rode in the Medieval Fairs around the state, but now he was retired. He seemed pretty spunky to me.

I also found a video of Ellie and me riding. And it’s pretty lame! Lacey is old, I’m bouncing around like a sack of feed (Andi would laugh her head off), and Ellie (a good rider!) can’t get Jewels to get a move-on. But we had fun and the weather was warm and sunny.

THEN . . . to make me really feel like a fool, I attended a lassoing clinic one Saturday morning with my horse-friend, Marie. The clinic goes from lassoing sawhorses to roping running calves from the back of your own horse (another day!) I’m afraid I did not even get good at the sawhorse, but I did manage to perfect the technique and learn how to swing and coil my rope. It’s tricky. Those lariats are stiff.

I now feel much compassion for Andi’s cousin, Daniel. Roping is not learned in a day, or even a week. Although . . . I can swing that lasso to make Kristel’s horses go faster, or convince them to GET IN THAT TRAILER! It works pretty well on goats too. But I prefer to snap the “flag.”

I figured out this part. It was SO COLD THAT DAY!
SUCCESS! This is as close to a live calf I ever got.

So . . . share the “good,” the “bad,” and the “ugly” about your own horsemanship. Can you rope? Do you barrel race? Jump English? Dressage? Do you have a funny story about a horse-related activity? We’d love to laugh at you too. (Okay, you can share a serious anecdote too and we won’t laugh.)

One more picture “after thought.” I hope by the time this post goes live, Mini Mae will have dropped her foal. She is a barge!

Published by Andi Carter

I'm the main character in the Circle C Adventures series. I live on a huge cattle ranch in 1880s California. These are my adventures.

54 thoughts on “Photo Friday: Wannabe Cowgirl”

  3. Lol, I laughed, even though I have no right to : ) I have ridden a horse exactly three times in my life (my sister is extremely allergic to hoses so I don’t get the chance very often). The first time, I fell off as soon as my horse started trotting (which was embarrassing considering I was at my friend’s house and she is an excellent rider). The second time, my friend was trying to teach me how to post (it didn’t go well). The third time, I rode around the barn exactly three times and then the horse (who is an ex-racehorse) took off at a mad gallop, and I, who had never gone faster than a trot was cowering in terror until my friend caught up and stopped her crazy horse. So yeah. But this post was very amusing to read : )

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    1. And I loved your story! It made me smile. My first ride on a horse was in the eighth grade. We were in Minnesota at my mother’s cousin’s house. She had horses and I wanted to ride one. So she helped me up, gave me the reins, and showed me how to go left, right, and stop. Then I just took off. By myself into the Minnesota range. I envisioned myself as Little Joe Cartwright (Bonanza, old TV western) and galloped away. I loved it! And have remembered it to this day. I have no idea why my mom let me just…..take off alone on a horse into the middle of nowhere. Me, a city girl who had never been on a horse in her life. But it was all good.

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      1. Thats really funny Caitlyn!

        I have been riding my whole life!
        So i am super duper grateful for all God has given me and my family 🙂

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  4. A couple years ago, my whole family went on a trail ride in South Dakota. It lasted about half an hour. I saw pictures of myself that my dad had taken after I dismounted. I was as bowlegged as a baby chick! The trail ride was a fun experience, though.

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  5. I unfortunately haven’t got to be around horses very much. But when I somewhere around 4-6 we kept horses for our neighbor. We kept two most the time and then sometime we had more. The two that we would usually keep were named Star and Suzie. Also my sister had a colt that she was training named lightning. But then he had to be put down because of a sickness. So that was really sad. But when we had horses I would ride with my siblings on the trails we have behind our house.

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      1. Thats so sad about lightening Katie! May i ask what sickness it had? if you know, lol

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  6. I have a miniature horse who’s name is Chester. When I was younger, (like three or four) I would ride Chester around our property, well Chester likes to eat grass so he would dip his head down to start eating and I would try to pull his head back up which did little good because I was so small. So instead of pulling his head back up I would slide down his neck! My sister thought it was really funny and now I do too, but when it was happening it was not so funny!

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  8. My cousins used to live on a horse camp so one year my sister and I tried going for a week. Once a day we would do a ridding lesson with about ten girls on horses in half of the corral. It was kind of full but still the highlight of the day. We got a different horse each day and I always seemed to land the troublemakers. Butterfly was probably the softest horse ever, but she loved the barrels set in the corners and couldn’t seem to stop placing her head on the inside of them. And a day or two later I got a horse who loved rolling. Whenever he thought no one was paying attention he’d get down on his knees. I was lucky not to get rolled all over by the rascal.

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  10. Delightful. I love the photos. When I was in high school my friend had horses and I rode a few times but not enough to ever get good at it.

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  11. Me and my sister have my Grandpas old horse, and she is as stubborn as a rock.🙄 I have probably only made her canter twice. Her name is snowflake

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  14. I haven’t had very many funny (or exciting) things happen to me while riding… I mostly just ride my horse around the arena or pasture. But, my friend rides all over on her horse with her five brothers. One time they were riding in their hunting club and she was loping and turned a corner too fast… there was a branch hanging down and before she could stop, it knocked her off. She landed on her feet but hurt her ankles and had to fall down. The sweet thing was though, that her horse, instead of keeping on going, stopped and came to stand beside her. She was super embarrassed though bc they were riding with a bunch of ppl…

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  16. I have a horse named Feather! He is a 21 year old Morgan gelding, but acts like he is a 4 year old Morgan stallion! (Although he is perfectly safe to ride and loves kids, he does test me!) I ride in Dressage, Jumping, and Gaming. I do barrels and all the other fun things! I’ve been riding for … 5 years. It is super fun! At first, I only rode a tiny pony called Lola. She is cranky, grumpy, and definitely a mare, but she was fun to ride when I could! The I started taking lessons on a 24 year old gelding called Oakie. He was super fun to ride on! Some people would call him bombproof! I started showing on him, then just 2 years ago got my own horse. Now I am showing Feather in all those fun sports! Here’s a fun fact that ain’t so short. The first time I fell off was on Feather. I’ve fallen off 2 times in my life and they’ve both been on Feather. Coincidence? I think not. The first time this is what happened. Feather and I were loping, (I am a dressage person so I always say cantering, but I’ll say loping here!!!) when I lost my stirrup. No big deal, I just slowed him down to a trot and leaned over to put my foot back in. Then, the catastrophe happened. A barn cat just ran out right alongside Feather, and he spooked like a cougar was chasing him. First he leapt to the side I was NOT leaning over, so now I’m half off him, half on him. Then, he takes off like a racehorse. I am just suspended in mid-air now. Of course, then I was like Wile E. Coyote and waved goodbye to Feather before falling to the ground with a smack. Not the best way to fall off! The second time, I was kicking Feather into a gallop and a bee stung him. He went off twirling and bucking, and any rodeo horse would be proud. I, of course, got my foot almost stuck in the stirrup and then went flying and hit my head on a rock. I had a helmet, so no serious injuries except for dizziness. I ran like a drunken sailor over to Feather and, of course, was like, “Feather! Are you ok? What startled you!!!???” So, I haven’t fallen off a lot but when I did, it was pretty spectacular!!!

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  21. (Sorry im getting to this late, haha but:)

    Thats so funny Mrs. M!! Thanks so much for sharing!
    I barrel race with my horse, Shyra! It is soooooo much fun! a funny story i have
    (I think ive said this story before but ill say it again, lol) is:

    One time probs like 2 or 3 years ago i went to mount by horse and forgot to tighten the girth **Smack forehead** I mean come on! Any good ridder knows to tighten there girth before they get on.
    Well, you might be thinking “Well Tori thats so stupid and its not gonna end well.” Well…. its was okay.
    But the worst of it was my older sister was giving a lesson to this 6 year girl in a different pen next to me while i road. her parents were watching her too.
    So when i was cantering around the paddock… i felt my saddle..tip..tip..tip until i got to the point where i fell of! but! I some how, i have no clue how this happened, but by the grace of God i landed on my feet!!
    The parents of the little girl were very concered but i was totally unharmed! (thank God haha) I just laughed, tightened my girth and hopped back on my horse. (Yes, my sister was like “Well your dumb” and rolled her eyes laughinly.)
    My poor horse, She was probs like “What did you just do?!?” haha!
    So as Elizabeth Carter always says “Alls well that ends well” am i right?
    haha! So i hope Y’all enjoyed this story!! 🙂 and i will always remeber that day! 😉

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  24. My family and I went on a horse trail with a guide(first-time experience) last October. My sister and her horse were right behind me. Though the first time riding a horse by myself I was doing fine. I love horses so I was right in my element. Suddenly, and quite unexpectantly my horse jerked(and I mean like kicking up his hind legs.) I flung forward but caught myself. When my sister realized I was okay she began laughing. She informed me that her horse bit my horse’s butt. Throughout the hour ride, this happened several times. Afterward, I told the guide what had happened she just commented, “Yeah those two horses hate each other.” I’m not sure why she put them next to each other if she knew that but oh well…I had a blast that day despite sore thighs and I never fell off, though I was sure I was going to. Overall it was quite amusing and I look forward to the next ride.

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  26. I ride once in a while. My best friend has been teaching me. (I’ve been riding for 7ish years and I haven’t loped on purpose, though the horse, Zeke, has broken into a lope momentarily.) I don’t really have any funny stories, but I’ve been on a couple of horses that have spooked and I’ve never fallen off. Once I graduate, I’ll most likely be able to find time for a horse, unless the Lord has other plans.
    I’ve found that squats can help with not getting so sore. Also, whenever I ride Western my knees hurt, but not so much with English.

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      1. Probaly because (for English vs Western) English you post (Up, Down.) and Western you have to sit the Jog/Lope so it requires more knee/leg grip. 🙂

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  27. I actually posy both ways. I think it might be because the western saddle holds your leg in place, while the English saddle lets you move your leg a lot.

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      1. I do post western with my one horse the other horse though i have to sit it. depends on the horse/saddle.

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  28. Ok, I know this is late from the time of the post but I wanted to share a funny story about when my parents and grandparents went riding on a trail. The guide must have chosen the wrong horses for the wrong people. My mom’s horse would not stop eating EVERYTHING and my dad’s horse was obeying every command (btw my dad is great with any animal. I’m pretty sure if he didn’t hate needles and all that stuff he would be a veterinarian) Anyway, my grandma’s horse was trying to bit my mom’s horse. My grandpa’s🐎 was not moving no matter how he nudged or prodded. They all agreed that it was definitely memorable. Lol!!!

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