Last night I went out for a ride on the Warrior Princess, and I got to thinking about what a great horse she has been.......And how appropriate it is that a, " Princess " rides another, " Princess ". 
How lucky I am to have found such a one!! Not all of them have been - Since I have been here in England, I have owned 5 different horses! ( Yes, well - some people actually LEARN from their mistakes - I, on the other hand, haven't quite grasped that concept! 
)
My second horse was a skewbald ( brown & white ) that I named, " Prince ". Inappropriately - as it turned out! He was anything but.... The first time I jumped him, I fell off and gave myself a black eye. How do you get a black eye while wearing a riding helmet?? I guess I hit my head so hard that all the blood rushed to that one spot?? I had fun telling everyone my horse gave me a shiner! That was clue # 1 . Then there was the time that I was mounting Prince, and he decided to bolt across the ( gravel ) yard. It was a hot day, and I was wearing a strappy tank top- I scraped the ground and scraped my bare back too! Ouch!
Clue #2.
Clue #3 was the real clincher though :
I was out hacking with 2 other gals, and we came to a field of horses. They weren't excited - just milling about - of course they cam over to the rail to check us out......I had Prince on a short rein, because he had a tendancy to get excited around unknown equines . Well we were fine until we reached the top of a hill - when it all went pear-shaped!! When a horse wants to bolt - there isn't a whole helluva lot a human can do - they are after all - stronger than we are! Well, Prince broke into a flat out gallop and we flew full tilt boogie down the fairly steep hill. ( To this day - I hate riding downhill.....) At the bottom of the hill was a hedgerow. I could see that he would have to stop, or at least slow down, there and make a turn one way or the other. So I focused on the hedge and willed myself to stay on, and stay reasonably calm. Well wouldn't you know - at the bottom of the hill right in front of the hedgerow - he made a very sharp left turn, all the while in gallop, and I flew off to the right side and landed smack in the middle of the bushes! Then, with out even so much as a backward glance, or a sayonara, off he ran into the woods!!
My companions stopped long enough to make sure that I was alright, and then took off after him. ( One very good reason to carry cell-phones while out riding. ) They never caught up to him - He ran almost all the way back to the barn - a distance of several miles. Apparently while he was trying to cross the main highway- ( fully bridled, saddled, stirrups flying - but riderless ) a woman stopped her car and caught him. Riderless horses gallopping along the major roadways tend to attract a lot of concern - 
After that incident, I decided perhaps he just wasn't the right, " Prince " for this princess!
I went on to buy mistake #3 - but that is another story, for another day.........
Moral of the story?
Just stay in the saddle my friends........
How lucky I am to have found such a one!! Not all of them have been - Since I have been here in England, I have owned 5 different horses! ( Yes, well - some people actually LEARN from their mistakes - I, on the other hand, haven't quite grasped that concept! )
My second horse was a skewbald ( brown & white ) that I named, " Prince ". Inappropriately - as it turned out! He was anything but.... The first time I jumped him, I fell off and gave myself a black eye. How do you get a black eye while wearing a riding helmet?? I guess I hit my head so hard that all the blood rushed to that one spot?? I had fun telling everyone my horse gave me a shiner! That was clue # 1 . Then there was the time that I was mounting Prince, and he decided to bolt across the ( gravel ) yard. It was a hot day, and I was wearing a strappy tank top- I scraped the ground and scraped my bare back too! Ouch!
Clue #2.
Clue #3 was the real clincher though :
I was out hacking with 2 other gals, and we came to a field of horses. They weren't excited - just milling about - of course they cam over to the rail to check us out......I had Prince on a short rein, because he had a tendancy to get excited around unknown equines . Well we were fine until we reached the top of a hill - when it all went pear-shaped!! When a horse wants to bolt - there isn't a whole helluva lot a human can do - they are after all - stronger than we are! Well, Prince broke into a flat out gallop and we flew full tilt boogie down the fairly steep hill. ( To this day - I hate riding downhill.....) At the bottom of the hill was a hedgerow. I could see that he would have to stop, or at least slow down, there and make a turn one way or the other. So I focused on the hedge and willed myself to stay on, and stay reasonably calm. Well wouldn't you know - at the bottom of the hill right in front of the hedgerow - he made a very sharp left turn, all the while in gallop, and I flew off to the right side and landed smack in the middle of the bushes! Then, with out even so much as a backward glance, or a sayonara, off he ran into the woods!!
My companions stopped long enough to make sure that I was alright, and then took off after him. ( One very good reason to carry cell-phones while out riding. ) They never caught up to him - He ran almost all the way back to the barn - a distance of several miles. Apparently while he was trying to cross the main highway- ( fully bridled, saddled, stirrups flying - but riderless ) a woman stopped her car and caught him. Riderless horses gallopping along the major roadways tend to attract a lot of concern -
After that incident, I decided perhaps he just wasn't the right, " Prince " for this princess!
I went on to buy mistake #3 - but that is another story, for another day.........
Moral of the story?
Just stay in the saddle my friends........
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