Hello Everyone,
I had promised I would share this mounted police experience on my paso if
I survived it, and I did!!!!! Barely, but I did, so here is my tale!!!!!
I left last week on Thursday for Ocala with my mare Dinamita. Dinamita is
a pretty red head with blond mane and tail who is about ten years old. She
is pretty much bombproof and shows and rides everywhere. She even won blue
ribbons at the Grand Nationals in Performance as a 3 year old filly, she
now shows in junior show classes this year, ridden by our 8 yr old granddaughter
Bridgette. She can be as fast as an arrow, and as hyper as dynamite, but
in general she is safe and reliable and always in gait on the fino board.
I love her. She even spent a little time in Canada, and the rest of her life
in Florida, so I knew she could withstand the low temperatures in Ocala announced
for the weekend! She had a flashy red colt by Capuchino, Piel Roja, who became
the high point pleasure and performance stallion in Georgia. She also had
a red filly who now rides in the dunes of Jacksonville. She had just had
a colt with Vulcano born late in August on the day tropical storm Ernesto
threatened to become a hurricane over Miami. His name, therefore, is Ernesto.
So I figured I would be as safe as can be with her, in spite of her natural
brio and her winning show experience in the ring. Pasos have to be hot in
the ring to win and be lookers. The problem is, I still had her with the
colt on her side and did not plan to wean her till January 07. When I decided
to ride with the Key West mounted police group at the Ocala Geiser clinic,
I first planned on riding one of my stallions; they are as gentle as lambs
and they are the ones I trail ride the easiest. Unfortunately stallions are
not accepted at the mounted police barns or clinics, it is a liability and
a risk to avoid, due to the unpredictable nature of all studs. Eventhough
paso stallions can make an exception to the rule, pasos are not part of police
work as they are too small and nervous and stallions are avoided as a rule.
Too bad I had started riding my Simbolo colt daily and slamming garbage can
lids right by his face without any reaction. So...I had to go back to square
one.
The problem before the clinic is that I have so many riding paso horses to
choose from, yet most are too young or too old and none I deemed ready enough
for such an event, they are either too show trained or too wild, with the
clinic advertising desentisizing to firecrackers, fumes, balls, flying objects,
crowd control and night obstacles of all sorts, Pasos do not generally do
that, quarter horses and reformed police thoroughbreds do that in their deep
sleep, as for pasos, we know that they shy at a bird on the ground, a squirrel
on the fence or at a glimpse of a still kid's paper plane; if and when the
paper plane flies, so does the paso rider, right?! I am the most timid rider
in the world in spite of my fifteen years with them, and I do not fall because
I never try anything that could even make me fall. My favorite gait is the
walk! But I decided to boost my self esteem this time and to better my sense
of self confidence, and to bombroof my mare further. So when Regina invited
me to join her and her paso Resplandor to the three day clinic, I closed
my eyes, jumped in and I went with immense expectations. I weaned my mare
Dinamita, a couple weeks early, and I made her work a week before our trip
to put her body back in shape as well as I possibly could, in such short
time after a year of maternity leave. Well, she was dragon the first day
of weaning, running towards the colt's paddock and screaming back at the
colt's loud cries, from wherever we were on the property, and she was a tiger
on the ground and in the round pen the next few trial days, she was a bear
under me ridden the third day at the farm, as I was trying to tame her enough
for the clinic, I really started panicking when the day before the trip to
the clinic she magically calmed down under a new Myler bit and she finally
gave me an absolutely beautiful ride out in our avocado grove with flat walking
and a relaxed corto. The feeling was exhilarating under saddle, the smile
on my face unerasable. So maybe I could do this pretty well after all, and
maybe she would even stand still to mount and avoid making a fool of herself
and of me, the rider, under saddle once in Ocala! I dismounted her with the
smile still on my face, and she squatted on the washrack to tell me just
how hot and in heat she was. Suddenly, she had to have a mate, urgently!
Or she was going to tease every single police gelding to death during those
three days in Ocala. My luck! I had forgotten about the weaning heats! That
is why police horses are geldings, not mares or stallions. I quickly bred
her to my Vulcano to have an Ernerstina next year. They did the job right
that day and the next morning, and confidently enough, I picked up Indio,
my girlfriend Joann's paso gelding, at noontime and drove the two horses
to Ocala, Here starts the adventure,
Arriving at the break of night in the cold and light rain was an achievement,
but I was just delighting in the smell of woods and winter, especially surrounded
by oak trees with hanging spanish moss. It was an eerie and ominous feeling.
Sargent Darlene Geiser greeted me warmly and the pasos equally warmly in
the most hospitable way, with thick inches of warm shavings in the stables
for the mare and a luxurious apartment with jacuzzi all for myself to stay
at for the night, that would also be our classroom during the day. The apartment
I mean, not the jacuzzi! That night the temperature dropped in the thirties
and I rode my first class in several layers of jackets and sweaters. My trainee
companions from Key West and Miami were just like me, covered up to their
noses and all bundled up, drinking coffee non-stop to make ourselves warm.
But let's go to the first class in the arena: we were on the ground, our
horses standing neatly on hand, we were checked for tack and equipment and
then we mounted as one and dismounted as one, we ranked and performed in
columns and formations, military-wise, it was hard for pasos to stay behind
neatly in a line and not pass the huge horses with a low pace, but somehow
we all did it right the first period of the day!! The second class that day,
after a short coffee break, was slighlty more challenging, with emergency
dismountings and mountings from the off side! We saw our leader jump off
his 16 or 17H horse at a walk, a trot and at a full gallup, that was impressive,
I gulped at the thought, I never do any emergency landing, I do not fall
period, by principle, I only dismount at a full stop, when it is safe. Usually
with a person on the ground to hold my mare for me! I saw all my companions
do it, and most landed on their feet, so I gulped and remembered that the
clinic was all about safety, I dismounted at a slow walk, in slow motion,
and managed not to break a leg! Fortunately I got my mare to march at a walk
and actually flat walk, for once. She was still in heat but listening to
my orders. My fear of the jumping off at a corto was immense, When my turn
came I did cheat and slowed her corto to a mini walk and I took my time to
slide off, by the time I touched the ground we were both at a full stop...
ah ah!! Nobody or almost no one saw it! But I must have been pretty clumsy
still, because everyone in their ranks laughed a little and advised me to
hit the jacuzzi that night, I must admit that my joints are not what they
used to be!!!! Once the fearful technique was under control, we joined our
ranks and marched in columns of twos and fours, and practiced at a walk until
we dropped and our pasos were very very calm by then, none of the agitation
that goes along with paso shows. I was relaxed and so was my mare, heat or
no heat. It was my dream kind of clinic. At noon we had a gourmet meal in
a lovely inn close by, all decorated for Christmas, and at night we had a
pizza party and rejoiced in front of the warm Geiser fireplace. The next
morning it was in the high 20's and we were thrilled not to have to jump
from our horses this time, but we prepared for the night obstacles in front
of a sheriff, we passed over a slight bridgem pasos adore that wood sounding
of course, we practiced staying calm in front of agitated crowds, I navigated
like a dream around the arena until I met the first real enemy: a noodle!!
Well, we passed barriers of noodles, those are the swimming pool floaters
in different colors that resemble light, long, bendable sausages. My mare
went beserk just at the sight of them moving around her. She saw red when
we had to put her chest against those held by two people, She followed the
quarter horses who saw nothing to it at all, but she shied left and right
and then almost jumped over the people holding those fearful noodles. I have
never tried holding a flag but I prayed we would not have to ever hold one
or a noodle on my mare Dinamita!!! Someone took a picture of me passing a
barrier of noodles and it is a frightful sight, my mouth is open wide as
if I were on a ghost ride or a roller coasdter at Disney World! My mare is
several feet off the ground, we were supposed to just walk calmly through.
After several tries she became better and better but she was always like
Speedy Gonzalez if the noodle came too close, if you see what I mean! Relief,
the noodles were placed on the gound and she passed them like a charm, nothing
to it as long as the noodle was static!! I learned about my mare and especially
about me: not looking at the frearful object helped immensely. I was the
one communicating my fear of noodles...or of any unidentified object on my
way that was higher than the ground and could put my life in danger!! Anyway,
along came the dreaded time to hear sensory objects and fumes snaking at
us and circling flares and flames. My horse following the others was as calm
as a lamb, and when shots were fired, I looked the other way and obtained
not even the flick of an ear from my paso mare, some of the older police
horses in the same row flicked an ear or moved back once or twice, they were
overdesentized, they knew it meant danger, to us pasos, it only meant fun!
Thank God, because we were going to practice the same dangerous drill at
night! Then the next day we pulled a round ball around, my girlfirend's paso
gelding turned out to be a champion soccer player, he loved it. My mare sneered
at the huge ball and pretended it was not there at all, after a few attempts
at killing the players. I stayed in the saddle, after she almost jumped over
it the first try around! Well, I must insist on describing the night class.
That was the highlight of the clinic. I knew that it was my night to stay
alive or pass on to another life. I was warned that the arena had no light
at all, and I was in awe, how could we see? If horses have night vision,
we don't!! Plus, the weather was going to be in the 30's or 40's. I bundled
up doubly to be cushiony enough, just in case I would hit the ground unexpectedly
at a flare or at a gun shot coming from nowhere, and not be able to find
my way -or my horse--back to the light!!! We started out in a single row
right at an angle from a sheriff's car highlights and the rest is history,
it went like the space mountain ride in the dark at the Disney Park. It was
magic and frightening at the same time. I held on tight and tried not to
communicate my fear to my mare, but she sensed it anyway and trembled visibly
from the cold and the irritation at the flashlight that was running circles
around us and sometimes pointed at her face. I could feel the tension build
in her to the point of explosion, and I knew I would be on the ground in
less time than it takes to scream, if I just held the flashlight that was
passed at me, and dropped one rein; so Darlene elegantly offered to hold
my mare for this exercise at a full stop and the mare helped me by trembling
more, so that we left her alone, and I breathed better and she stopped trembling
when the next person in line held the flashlight and poured it all over her
horse, with no reaction whatsoever! But each and everytime I felt my mare
tense on the rail, once we were in motion in the total dark, I knew the nasty
little flashlight was directed at her or not far from us!! So noodles and
flashlights are on my list to do and in my black book for now! Shots in the
dark, flares and hissing firecrackers did nothing to upset any of us, those
were the ones I really feared, it was the little details that made her mad,
I managed to stay in the saddle all the way back to the barn, and I wished
there had been a moonlight to trailride that night, it was beautiful and
eerie. The last day we did a rescue search on horseback in the woods, and
my team found the missing person, my paso mare loved every minute of it.
I forgot to mention that we also did crowd control and I was almost pulled
violently from my horse in action by a passerby, by the leg, I immediately
tried to remember what to do, we had gone thru that in the morning classroom,
another thing was to put the theory in practice, I screamed and looked back
for help, trying to hold my other leg up higher and balance myself, then
I was instructed to rub off the back of my horse against the assaillant,
we did that well several times, and we butted the "bad people" with a head
knock, but I would be a dead body in real life, screaming will take you nowhere
I realize, action does. Self defense from a horse is something I had never
considered. It can become handy as a lone woman on trails these days in this
crazy world.
The return trip was uneventlful, oh, except that my mare, who usually loads
and unloads as a pro, flatly refused to reload for the last five minutes
of our trip back, so she spent the night at my friend's barn with her gelding
companion, a failure to bombproofing a paso mare?? No, it was entirely my
fault, I should not have let her eat grass at leisure and run around as I
was unloading suitcases and grain and talking to Joann, and she had had seveen
hours straght on the hoighway with no food or water, she had enough and saw
her chance. Well, we all learn, I was unwilling to fight at midnight, and
we learned in Ocala to work with the horse and never against the horse anyway.
Dinamita won the last round, I must admit, she tricked me at night and loaded
as a queen on her own terms the next morning, making me look like a wimp,
but I pretty much bombroofed her otherwise, even though we all know that
horses are --and will always be-- unpredictible but charming creatures! If
you ever want to have the fun and the learning I got with my paso, go and
attend a Geiser clinic in Reddick, close to Ocala. It was the most rewarding
experience I could ever have and share safely with my paso! Thanks to Regina
who invited me and to the Key West mounted police who participated and to
the Geisers, Darlene and Terry, who made it possible and turned the clinic
into a wonderful adventure! |