A Ride with Maverick and Jett

This weekend Jett’s owner, S,  invited me out for a ride. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I debated on who to ride.  With the temperatures soaring, I knew I couldn’t ride Rain and I wanted to give Zeke some time off. I really needed to ride Chaos, Maverick, or King. I figured we’d be riding some roads, so that eliminated King. So it was between Chaos and Maverick. I figured I’d better ride Maverick since I hadn’t ridden him in ages.  Oh sure, we did some ground work the other day but no serious riding.

So I grabbed Maverick and headed over. Silly me, I almost ran out of gas. I need to start carrying a few gallons of gas just in case. Thank goodness for friends!! They filled my tank up enough so there was no worry about running out of gas on my way back to the gas station after our ride. You’d think after almost 10 years of owning that truck that I would know better. Twice in the past year I’ve had that darn gas light come on. Knock on wood that I’ve been lucky.

But back to the ride. Jett is coming along nicely. We had a beautiful ride and the horses handled themselves amazingly well considering we had a dog come charging out to the end of the driveway and barking at us, deer jumping out of a grove of trees, and traffic (luckily the traffic was really patient and didn’t try to fly past us. I was very surprised.)

I wasn’t sure how well Maverick would behave himself but he did amazingly well. The only thing I did was try to be a social butterfly and whinny to horses that he saw along the way. Otherwise, he was a perfect gentleman. He really is a good trail horse. I’m doing him such an injustice by not riding him more. Hopefully this month I’ll be able to sneak in a few more rides.

We rode to a place I’ never been before. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. Normally I’m a nervous wreck but Maverick kept at an easy pace and we just wandered along. When it was time to head back, Jett picked up the pace, but Maverick, well, he apparently had no sense of direction because he didn’t pick up the pace when we turned around. In fact, he started walking slower. Crazy gelding. Considering I’ve been on him maybe a half dozen times this year (and it’s already July), Maverick was outstanding.

Jett was amazing as well. He had a bit of a different opinion on leaving the place, but after a mile of working with him, he headed on down the road like he was an old pro instead of just learning. Jett’s owner has done an amazing job with him. I wish that every horse would have the opportunity to have such an education.

I personally can’t train a horse. Oh I know, we are always “training” but to teach a horse to be ride able is beyond my abilities. So I commend those that can. I simply am not a good teacher.  From what I’ve learned about Jett’s daddy, I’m thinking that Jett may have a bit of an ornery streak in him like his daddy. But he does have a soft side to him like his momma, Savanna. I didn’t get any pictures of our ride, but I’ll have to go and get some pictures of Jett so you can see how he’s progressing.

Given time, patience, and proper education, horses like Maverick and Jett can go a long way. I look forward to watching Jett and see how his education progresses. And for Maverick, I’d really like to see what more he has. He has a lot of potentially that I haven’t tapped in to yet. He makes a fantastic trail horse but I know there’s more than he can do and he has a mind that’s sharp as a tack. It would be nice to engage that mind of his and get him to start thinking. We’ll see how things progress. Anyone have any cattle they’d let us play with? I think Maverick might be cow-y.