When All You Want to Do is Ride!
When I was a child, I spent most of my time looking for horses I could be with – and ideally ride. I had become friends with Bertil, who owned several horses. In addition to his own, he often took in horses for training or driving. He also had mares come to his stallion, and they would often stay on his pastures all summer to ensure they became pregnant.
This meant Bertil had paddocks scattered all over the place. This was in Blekinge, near the Småland border, an area with lots of forests and rocks. You had to make the most of the small patches of grass here and there.
That summer, Bertil had taken in a young stallion he was training to drive. Everyone who left their horses with Bertil usually said, “That girl can ride them a bit too, to get them used to it.” Naturally, I was more than happy to help! If the horses had already been worked a little in harness, it was rarely a problem to ride them as well.
Bertil had been working with the stallion for a while, and I had ridden him a few times. He was super calm and willing. Then Bertil decided the stallion could go out to pasture for a while to let what he’d learned sink in. The pasture was quite far from my home, but I didn’t see that as a problem. I had my legs to walk on and all the time in the world!
The stallion was turned out on a pasture on the other side of Rude Lake, where we used to swim. I had almost three kilometers to walk down to the lake. Once there, I would take a boat we kept by the shore and row across to the other side – quite a long way, actually. From the shore, it was only about 500 meters to the pasture.
I had borrowed a bridle so I could ride the stallion a little while he was out on the pasture. Riding him in the paddock worked fine. The stallion was friendly and came over to me when I arrived. I put on the bridle, found a rock to climb up on, and mounted. He accepted it all calmly, and I started to let him walk a bit in the paddock.
At first, everything went well, but he wasn’t fully trained yet, and soon he started heading off in his own direction. His pasture buddy, finding this very entertaining, suddenly began galloping around. The stallion decided to join in the fun, launching into a series of bucks that caught me completely off guard.
I flew off in a wide arc and landed on my back in a patch of nettles and blackberry bushes. Luckily, I missed the large rocks in the paddock – otherwise, it could have ended badly. I could barely move, but I managed to get to my feet eventually. I was sore all over and covered in stings from the nettles and scratches from the brambles.
But my first thought was still: I need to get the bridle off the stallion so he doesn’t hurt himself!
Fortunately, the horses had calmed down, and I managed to catch the stallion without too much trouble and remove the bridle. After that, I hobbled back to the boat, rowed across the lake, and walked the three kilometers home to our summer cottage – bruised and battered.
When my mom saw me, she immediately knew something was wrong. I had to convince her it wasn’t so bad. Imagine if she had forbidden me from riding again – that would have been a disaster!
Bertil never found out that I’d been thrown. I simply told him that maybe it was a good idea for the stallion to have a proper break while he was out on pasture. When the stallion returned, I rode him again, and it went much better when his pasture buddy wasn’t running loose beside us.
We riders are tough, and I often look back on how much I’ve endured for my love of horses. But it has always been worth it!
The photo is from the early 70s where I am riding a North Swedish Stallion Hamn. The saddel is from the arme and not very comfortable:)