OH BOY Moment …

Funny story that I had to share … well, at least I could laugh afterwards.

I moved Henry yesterday to Brookville/Campbellville. Nice spot with an indoor arena, huge paddocks and close to home that I can afford!

I was in the outdoor ring, moseying along with Henry. Barn Manager went to the pasture to fetch “Cody”, Henry’s first introduction to his new family. Barn Mgr comes back with Cody in tow and the ENTIRE herd (~ 12 horses) is on her heels.

Henry stops, ears/neck up – and POOF – he was off like a rocket towards the mutual fence line (between the summer paddock and outdoor arena). Rope is flying through my hands, I said “screw it” and let go (no way I wanted to be on the end of a horse galloping off). Looked over, arena gate is OPEN … Looked at Henry (lead line dangling all over the place as he was in flight) – looked at the open gate. Henry can take care of himself with the rope (his responsibility now) – I take off for the gate. Managed to close gate (no escapee of the now “extrovert” horse) and I look at Henry – completely on adrenaline and “me” being absolutely invisible.

“Humph”, I have to get him sooner or later … so I went to go get him and this is where the fun begins. Henry is BIG when he is on adrenaline, so I thought – hey! Let’s yield the hindquarters (bearing in mind that at this point in time, it’s all at LIBERTY). I go to yield the HQ and forget my position … Picture me being in zone 3, Henry sideways along the fence trying to check out the new herd. I raise my CS to yield (forgetting to check in on my position) and all of a sudden, I have the most impressive sideways (side pass) at Liberty – LOL!!! Henry is flying along at a trot, sideways along the fence, HQ crossing over so eloquently – and me getting frustrated that I cannot catch him.

BIG DOH … he was ONLY doing what I was communicating to him to do!

After I realized what I was doing, I turned off the energy, went into neutral – he stopped and I picked up the lead line.