The rodeo ride (and Big Black Demon-spawn)

It's absolutely official.

I hate biting flies. You know the ones, the Big Black Demon-spawn that bite hard enough to draw blood and drive horses crazy.

They drive mine to buck. Even under saddle.

Gabe has bucked a few times while out riding and one of the Big Black Demon-spawn lands on him in a place he can't reach. He grunts and bucks a couple of times, I find the bug and try to squash it. It keeps me on my toes and he gets a natural "chiropratic crack" in the process.

Montana, on the other hand, is a nasty bucker.  He takes off running and bucking, under saddle, when the bugs start biting hard. He's an athlete, apparently. He bucks sideways, twisting his body in the process of trying to rid himself of the Big Black Demon-spawn that land on his belly.

And apparently, I need to practice riding without stirrups more often to improve my balance and strengthen my seat.

Yes, I got dumped this weekend. By Montana. Stupid bugs.

We trailered to a friend's place this weekend to go for a trail ride. It was Montana's first outing there so he was a bit up and looky, but nothing major. We were in the woods (the bugs were awful. A buffet of every biting bug imaginable followed and tormented our little group), trotting along, nice as can be, a good, forward, energetic trot when I felt him starting to ball up, his tail started going crazy, his head came up and his ears laid back flat. I thought the rider behind us was perhaps a bit closer than Montana was comfortable with and dismissed it to attitude. Then, without warning, he just started bucking and going forward with even more energy, bucking and twisting his body in a way I've only seen accomplished at rodeos.

Off I went.

Right off into the dirt and hard on my butt. I have a very pretty bruise where I landed and, oh, boy, did my lower back ever hurt the morning after. He stopped immediately and stood there looking at me like "what the heck are you doing down there, silly human?" Of course, I was absolutely mortified to get ditched in front of my friend and my husband and a woman I had just met. What kind of rider am I that I can't stick to my horse for a couple of bucks? Usually, those things don't faze me at all, I can ride just about anything they want to throw at me and laugh at them as they do it. I might not be pretty while riding out a stupid moment or two, but I can usually ride it out and stay aboard until the stupids are out. He seriously caught me off guard. I did not expect that, not at all. Especially not while going at a good trot.

I brushed the dirt off, put a mental Band-aid on my pride, and hopped back on.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, he was still up and looky, but, new place, strange horses, 4-wheelers and dogs, all contributed to his level of high alert and I couldn't really get on to him for being a nut. He's still young, and he needs many, many more miles under saddle before new things become old hat. He did walk right over an old, tilted, wooden bridge without much fuss at all, a definite plus in my book.

But I can guarantee this: Every ride from now on will start with a good 10-15 minutes of work without stirrups and another 10 in two-point to regain my balance and solid seat. There is no reason at all that I should have come off, and I'm going to do all I can to make sure it doesn't happen again. At least, not with anyone watching!

Oh, and more fly spray. Lots more fly spray.