Surely a farm boy like yourself took agriculture in high school and was a member of the FFA. If you couldn't learn in school and all of your friends and family on cow farms couldn't teach you about inbreeding it is probably a lost cause trying to teach you now.
Uh oh, you triggered an Old Fart story regarding horses.I grew up adjacent to horses and cattle but never worked with them. I basically knew enough to avoid the back end and little more. So while I was in the 8th grade and in the throws of puberty, I broke my right arm showing of for the girl I was sweet on. She appreciated my efforts and rode her horse to visit. I was honored and accepted a ride seated behind her with my good arm tight around her waist. Just when I was thinking that the broken arm was a reasonable price to pay for the intimate contact.....the horse reared up. I slid back and onto his rump. Then somehow when he came down a gap between him and the saddle opened. Gravity and momentum took my crotch into the gap which immediately closed. Tight! I was so relieved when he reared again and I was released. I immediately released my grip and slid off the back, I laid on the ground in a fetal position for a long time. It took a while to be able to speak and explain to her why "I will walk home"....as soon as I am able. I have not been on the back of a horse since. I will however give them apples when they come to the fence.
Horses will make you look like an idiot at any opportunity! A friend had to pay for a totaled out pick-up, a totaled out van, and got a DWI just for riding a horse in a parade! Almost lost his job too because he drove a pick-up as part of his job and he had broken his hind leg in all the hurrah. The horse, and foal since she was pregnant, were unharmed even though she was knocked down. The major grief was legal and financial. Seems a horse becomes a motor vehicle when operated, rode or driven, on a state highway!
There were times that it might have been stretching things to say I was bucked off, I just went up high enough that the horse wandered off before I came back down!
My favorite horse could do it all. Win races on the match tracks, cut super well, on and on. He had one minor flaw. Anytime we were in wreck we both rolled the same way! 1200 pounds of horse rolling over you leaves you feeling like a bug on a windshield!
I had gotten him from a guy who had just been pasture breeding with him. He was so mellow you could ride him with a hay string for halter or bridle. As I fed him the same as my race horses he started feeling better all the time and it took more and more bit to hold him. No more hay bale string for a curb chain either.
I had just put a genuine US cavalry bit on my bridle and a solid chain with links end to end. I was crossing a road at an angle and he decided to go down the road instead. I hauled backwards on the reins forgetting the new bit which required a gentle hand! He reared straight up then kicked as hard as he could! Shorty was only 14.2 hands but that is the highest I have been on a horse, or almost on a horse. My head must have been twelve feet or so in the air, maybe fifteen. Shorty's head was the same height as mine. I know because when he slung his head that big heavy bit caught me upside my head. I had deliberately kicked my feet out of the stirrups and pushed off to not land in a pile with him, saddle horns can be deadly if the horse is on top.
I hit the ground half knocked out. Shorty hit the ground beside me and rolled over me to get up naturally! He always rolled the same way I did. One of those Murphy's Law things I think.
Funny, the two most fun things that I did with clothes on was driving a 600+HP race car and "pasture" cutting with a good one horsepower cow horse. Pasture is used very loosely as they usually included woods and swampy areas. I rode my horse back to the barn and that is when I found twenty-two of my friend's cows were out! He was gone so I went into the subdivision chasing cows. It is very exciting, almost like being on ice riding a horse on concrete or pavement when they are scrambling chasing a cow. No big deal in the end, got the cows in, fixed the fence, just anudder day in Paradis!
Hu
