Casper the Friendly Spook

There is an old saying that the art of horseback riding is keeping a horse between you and the ground. Sherrie gets a gold medal for that!

This year Sherrie brought her beautiful black Quarter Horse Poncho and a sorrel and white Paint, named Red Cloud (who was the nemesis of Skipper and Dakota when he was growing up). When we went on the ride in 2005 she brought the same two horses. She road Poncho and I road Red Cloud. She asked me if I wanted to switch this year and I said no, I'd just ride Red Cloud again. I've known him since he was a baby and he still has that inquisitive personality that we all fell in love with. Boy, am I glad I made that decision!

Poncho (alias Casper) spooked at everything this year. He spooked at his reflection in pick-up trucks, he spooked at little pieces of paper on the ground, he spooked at the same yellow trailer everyday for a week! He got so spooky with his spooking that as we came to bends in the trail he would veer off to the side and crane his neck around the corner to peek down the trail ahead.

Poncho doesn't do "little spooks". He does have one good habit about the whole thing; he faces his fear rather than running away from it. The bad part though is he spooks after he has already passed the fearful object, meaning he does a 180 in order to get a better look at whatever set him off.

I rode most of the trip behind Poncho (for reasons I'll explain later) and I was overcome by pure awe, amazement and admiration whenever I watched Sherrie manage to stay on him. If he had spooked and jumped 8 feet with me, I would have been catapulted another 16 feet through the air.

If you are not familiar with spooking horses let me explain how it all works. A spook is an electrical charge that starts deep in the horses body and develops into a lightening bolt. Then it travels bi-directionally out of his body.... out of his mouth into the butt of the horse in front of him and out of his butt into the mouth of the horse behind him. You have a magnificent chain reaction as this bolt of electricity travels through the whole crowd.

Pity the poor horse in front of a spooker. He doesn't get any visual warning just a shock with a cattle prod from behind. And so Red Cloud and I decided it was best to stay behind Casper. At least we could see him in action before the lightening bolt shot out his butt. As with anything desensitization rules, Red Cloud finally ignored Poncho and came to the conclusion that the horse in front of him was just plum crazy. Red Cloud deflected most of the lightening bolts with a toss of his head.

Notice I said "most of". The last day of the trip we were riding down a trail towards a clearing that is sort of like a wagon wheel where 6 separate trails come to a head. The ever cautious Poncho peered out into the clearing before walking the last few feet. Unbeknownst to him another group of riders were coming down the trail opposite us.

Just like crossing a narrow bridge in the middle of Timbuktu an 18 wheeler always comes along and crosses at the same time. As Poncho walked into the clearing the other horses came off the trail on the opposite side. These were not little lightening bolts. It was an electrical storm that shot bolts from all directions as the horses across from us spooked at Poncho spooking. The clearing was such a mess of electricity that Red Cloud spun around and started to high tail it for home via any other route.

Within minutes all the riders had control of their horses. Everyone managed to keep a horse between them and the ground. We all passed each other in the clearing laughing and shaking our heads at the little electricity generators we were riding.


Poncho (Casper) looking at the Loch Ness Monster.



Opps! The Monster swam off to the right!



Ponchs says, "Get me outta here!"

(Eminence, Cross Country Trail Ride, August 5-11, 2007)