Rodeo Isn't for Us

Since Coaster has been behaving himself wonderfully in the arena I decided to have a fun day and go "trail riding". Unfortunately our barn doesn't have any trails nearby so this really means that we go walk around the dirt roads, which is usually good enough for me. As we start off half a herd of cattle come trotting up to the fence to get a closer look at us. Coaster was not amused. Next thing I know we are in the ditch with a barbed wire fence just a foot from our left side. Luckily things didn't get uglier than that, I hopped off to check his legs - which were fine - and then got back on to continue of the road.

At this point in the ride I'm thinking that the worse is over and nothing can get much more exciting than a ditch and a barbed wire fence on our little hack. I was wrong. About forty yards past the horse-eating cows a great dane with horns - some people would have called it a goat - comes out of the brush (through the fence that was supposedly keeping it in). At this point Coaster and I have about a half-second "WTF?!" moment until the thing lowers its head and charges us! Coaster and I must have been on the same wavelength because right about the time he rears up and spins around I "cowboy-kick" him to get the hell out of there. Neither one of us really cared to stick around to find out what was going through this large billy goat's head - all we really were paying attention to were the horns and its not-so-happy expression. We gallop down the road - right past the horse-eating cows which weren't nearly as scary when we are galloping - and don't slow down for probably 100 yards or so.

I probably should have made Coaster stick around to deal with the little monster, but personally I didn't want to have to call the insurance company and try to explain why my horse is lame because of a goat. If any of you have tried to explain anything to an equine insurance company, you know where I'm coming from on this one! Needless to say, I'm pretty sure Coaster would do Grand Prix dressage for me if it meant never going on another "trail ride"! Poor horse, bulldogging and goat tying is not in his job description!