Not quite but nearly three months later

Calypso has gone back home and Brandy is now well and truly setting the pace.


For plan B I’ll be drawing on all my resources, my friend Terry, Richard Maxwell and contemporaries and ‘The Ten Steps” given to me by my mentor.


Really what I’m coming to is that it’ll be easier to follow Brandy’s clues than setting my own schedule. On the days we’re good, she pretty much does whatever I ask her, within reason. But there’s still the odd occasion where she treats me as if I am a stranger, ouch.


I’ve learned to recognise that when Brandy is already stressed even ten minute sessions strain our friendship. I’ve noticed that already without my input, she’s learning so much every day, the sights, sounds and smells of our laid back neighbourhood are clearly a little overwhelming to her at times. But whenever I put no pressure whatsoever on her we can hang out for ages and it’s all good. 

Plan B

We are grateful to the good forces in the sky for keeping us all in one piece. Just a few scrapes and bruises .. pfew. An outta control 350-odd kilos randomly flying around the yard and no one got seriously hurt; that must have taken a whole stack of guardian angels for sure.


We got the message, we heard you loud and clear Brandy, you don’t want us to get on your back .. as yet.


First words out of sis’ mouth were, “How did I look, how did I look?” After carefully considering the response she decided that horses aren’t on her to do list any longer, so we’re moving on to plan B.

She’s a dancer.

My sister once more leaned over Brandy, only this time putting her full 61 ½ kilos on the horse with her right foot in the stirrup and for about one milli- second, all was well. Next moment this horse which I was gently going to lead around the paddock for the very first time with a rider on her back, arches her back sky high, aiming for the moon.  Near enough simultaneously sis is passively embracing the rocks underneath Brandy whilst pressing her cheeks deeply into the soil. Meanwhile a voice from the side lines is urging us to Get the hell out of the way.


My sister’s elegant nosedive is followed by a swift scramble through the electrified fence to the edge of the paddock as I also run to make place for this impromptu break-dancer. 
Ace performance. Back arched, manes, nostrils and stirrups soaring through the air with her feet barely, if ever, touching the ground. Just a whirlwind flying through our paddock. It seemed to last for an eternity. I don’t know if the on and off leaning into the electric fence spurred her on or eventually slowed her down. But we mainly credit her visiting friend, Calypso the gelding, for telling her that, enough is enough. 


Eventually her pupils returned and the white of her eyes, by now a little bloodshot, disappeared. She had had a good workout. Hell, we’d all had a good workout. 


Maybe the extra 40 kilo’s my sister put on since our childhood years made all the difference, or have I lost my touch already?

Riding to the bay. 5 ½ weeks

Today my sister decided to ride Brandy to the Bay. I told her that Brandy is not ready but she insisted. She also insisted on going bareback and I guess that I should have left it at that but I figured that it would be more comfy for Brandy to have a saddle on her; not that I expected them to leave the paddock together.


I walked Brandy around with the lead, saddle and the stirrups and she was surprisingly fine with it all. I told my sister to put some pressure on Brandy’s back before actually mounting her and she leaned over her and all went well. I then suggested that she shouldn’t put all her weight on Brandy to start off with and she promised that she wouldn’t.


This took us all the way back to our childhood years were we would ride the wild horses on our property.

Still figuring out the amounts.

Brandy is not too keen on the sulphur, it makes her pull faces and spit. I try it on Baileys first who is about half her size and Brandy tolerates about one fifth of what I put in his food. Talk about being fussy. She loves the hay, chaff, oats and copra. She’ll pull up her nose if I put as much as a smidgen of anything else in it. So, yes, I’m still working on that and figuring out the amounts because I rather keep the flies off her by putting stuff in her feed than continue to put brut on her.

New gear.

Baileys desperately wants to be her friend. Brandy is more interested in the ducks and hares skipping around the yard and me opening the garage door. Whilst initially she would dash all the way to the other end of the paddock, now she is doing quite the opposite. The sound of our garage door means company and food and she loves both.


Whenever I get a chance I eat my lunch and breakfast with her and our other pets all sitting out in the paddock. Brandy, me, puss, dog, pony and the other day our puss’s pet snake baby brown. I reckon having Brandy watch me play and hang out with our other pets all makes a difference.


Brandy is helping me purchase our new gear too. Initially I offered the fertiliser for free to our neighbours which they politely declined. Since I put the bags of poo up for sale at two dollars a pop they are selling like hot cakes. Bought me a new girth and lead rope already. Aiming for a new saddle next.

I’m no Guy McLean … yet .four weeks

OK the dates are all over the shop, what with all the excitement and that but the truth is that after three weeks and three days I managed to put a saddle on her. So Guy McLean does this in half an hour, well I intend to improve but for now I’m happy with three weeks.

Before we managed to write up an official training diary; Brandy comes when I call her, I can lift up her front feet and stroke her pretty much all over. I kinda hung over her a bit the other day to see what she would do and she looked around with a big question mark on her face. That was it. She’s cool as a cookie.

This weekend we were supposed to be riding her; that was the plan. My sister once more was going to give it her best shot; this time around, no halter, no saddle. Just rider and horse. It didn’t take long for Brandy to charge her, which was fun to watch from outside the fence. But by the time they finished playing, no one got to ride her.