First Ranch - And Lesson on Human Character

Judy’s place was full of retired horses; old swaybacks and arthritic mares and geldings she had ‘collected’ over the years. The place was muddy, run down but had shelter and a small arena. Judy also fed her horses well; maybe too well. I made a promise to Mystery he and I have both kept to this day. “I won’t ever let you starve as long as you don’t buck me off”.

This was the first time Mystery had been off his ranch and he was a lost soul who couldn’t make friends. I felt pretty lost myself. Susan had died and I had no one to help me learn about taking care of my horse. I no longer had Susan’s sage advice.

I worked with Mystery every change I could get. Judy had an old saddle I could use in exchange for cleaning out an old shed on her property. Mystery was good natured and kept his patience with me. One day I did not tighten up the girth correctly. Just as I put my weight in the stirrup to mount, the saddle slid and I fell off. I looked up to see the saddle hanging under his belly and Mystery giving me a look like “you are so embarrassing!” Another type of horse would have run and bucked in panic but he just stood there and allowed me to loosen and reset it. Although he had been starved, he didn’t associate humans with starving or abusing him; but just with feeding him. I was lucky he had such an easy going personality.

Soon I saw a different side of Judy, one that I did not like. She had a run down arena type area which I used to practice riding. One day I set up plastic poles I found in there as very low jumps. Judy saw it and went into hysterics; of how I was abusing the horse and how would I like to whap my leg on plastic? She knew I was new to horses yet felt it would be better to yell and have a hissy fit instead of explain the problem. This was my first hint there would be problems with this ranch.

Judy had a little dog, Pepper, who loved to chase the horses and grab their tails. “Oh, the horses know they are just playing” she would say but I knew this really was not a good thing. I would see the dog nip a horse and the horse become very angry. I repeatedly asked her to not allow it but she ignored me and made fun of my concerns. One day I was riding in the back of her truck while she was feeding and the horses were following, helping her throw out bales of hay. She stopped and put the tailgate down and the horses came up. Mystery started feeding out of the back of the truck and Pepper snuck up on him and bit him, hard. Mystery kicked out (missed) and whirled around towards the dog but the dog was out of range. Mystery was so mad he just kicked out again….this time he hit the tailgate. I knew he was hurt but before I could say anything, Judy started yelling at me. “Oh you are going to over react, I know it! They are just playing, he isn’t hurt”….we got into a big argument then and I knew I had to get Mystery out of there, and fast…..