If you know anything about me, it is that I have a horse
named Bella and I talk about her a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. For those who don’t know, Bella (Miss
Believin’) is my Saddlebred mare that I showed for eight years before retiring
her in October 2015. She was my first show horse and I couldn’t bring myself to
part with her during my show days. We showed in three different divisions and she
took me from junior exhibitor to amateur status.
Bella's reaction when I say "let's go for a ride" now that she's retired.
Bella has always taken care of me. She is game and loved her
job as a show horse, but she never did more than what her rider could handle. I’ve
spent over eight years at this point learning this mare, and she never ceases
to pull something new and test me. She occasionally pulls stunts on me now that
she never thought of back when I got her a twelve year old. And in her newly
retired life, she is the same old Bella. All mare. All attitude. All the time.
Where Bella has been boarded the last couple months since her
retirement there are short trail paths that connect a few open fields together.
I’ve ridden Bella around on stable property before where I had her in training
and around the pond there, but she’s never had to walk through a bunch of
trees. One day over this past Christmas break I decided to take Bella out on
the trail paths. I knew she loved outside, but I also knew there wasn’t going
to be much stopping along the way. Once we were on our trail ride, there were
no breaks. Bella is not one to stop and sight see. I tried this before on our
trail rides around the previous property and we ended up spinning in circles
until we were walking forward again.
Taking in the view of Dark Horse Training Center at Lismore Farm.
Now, Bella is a smart horse. I thought she might be hesitant
first time out on these new paths, but I knew she would be able to get through
them with some encouragement. As it turned out, the trail paths themselves were
the least of my worries. On the way from the barn to the trails at the back of
the property, Bella got scared of her own shadow. She’s never been a very
spooky horse, but there have been a few things come across our path that she
really did not like. But a shadow? This I did not expect. Bella stopped and
refused to walk forward. When I kicked her she spun around. So then out came
the whip and with a few small encouraging taps we got over the shadow fear.
To make things more interesting, we had to walk between two
paddocks to get to the start of the trails. In the field to our left there was
a mare and a mini donkey. I’m not sure if Bella had ever seen a mini donkey before,
but she was spinning around again and trying to go the opposite direction. The
donkey was following her along the fence line and wanted to play, and the little
mare who has beat up so many other horses in the field was scared. I couldn’t
help but wonder what happened to “I AM MARE. HEAR ME ROAR.”
We finally got over our fear of the mini donkey by stopping
(and squirming) for a few minutes and looking at it. After that we went through
our first path of trees. This went quite well for a horse who had never done
anything of the sort, but Bella was all pumped up this day for some reason. She
was already wound up when I first got on and then going on a new adventure like
this just made her even more wound up. My plan was to walk the trails, but
Bella had other ideas. We ended up marching through that trail path and through
the first field, even trying to trot along the way.
Then came the second trail path.
This one was a game changer. Bella started through the path
confidently, but then she came across the top of a drain pipe that was sticking
out of the ground. This was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. We
walked up to it, spun around, went back to the field. Walked up to it, spun around,
went back to field. Repeat and repeat. This wasn’t the first time Bella had to
step over something, but she was not stepping over that drain pipe. At this point,
she was even more worked up. I decided to trot her through the trail path,
hoping she would use the momentum to go over the drain pipe. This decisions
kind of worked, and I say kind of because it didn’t quite go as planned. Bella
trotted down the path, stopped in front of the drain pipe, and jumped. My very
first time jumping my horse was not on purpose, but at least we were clear of that
path and onto the second field.
Bella marched on, refusing to flat walk at this point. We
ended up in a slow trot the second half of that field and through the third
trail path into the last field. Now Bella wanted to show trot. No amount of
whoops or woahs would change her mind on this one. We turned around to head back
to the barn and Bella acted like she was about to trot through the gate at the
World’s Championship Horse Show. We made our way back to the second field and I
gave up holding her back at this point. We cantered our way through the field,
which was another new experience with Bella for me. I had never cantered her in
an open field before, and she never once tried anything bad. There were no
kicks, bucks, or jumps. She went straight through the field and carried me
safely along the way.
When we got back to the second trail path, I was wondering
how we were going to get back over the drain pipe. This time Bella marched up
to it confidently, but she didn’t just step over it. She placed her hoof on top
of it as if to say, “Screw you drain pipe. I’m not afraid anymore.” Then she proceeded
to march through the path before we took off cantering through the first field.
Bella ended up marching through the final path and continued
to march all the way back to the barn. Although it had been in my plans to walk
the entire ride, I enjoyed the time I had to experience new things with Bella.
Not everything went smooth on our trail ride, but Bella was brave and found a
way to overcome her fears, all the while never putting me in danger. As much as
I will miss showing her this year, I’m also excited to be able to play around
with her and learn new things.
When weather permits, we will work on getting desensitized
to the trails so we are not always that wound up!
Play time in the round pen.
Sometimes I think Bella enjoys retirement too much (not really, that's just one dirty horse).
Bella and her new best friend, Belle, who also happens to be a Saddlebred. This is the first horse I've seen Bella be very good friends with and not try to assert dominance over.
Bella and Belle running away when I tried to catch Bella to ride.
