Good Things About Dude

Sometimes I get frustrated with the "issues" I'm working through with Dude, so I wanted to put down my gratitude list of reasons he's a great horse that is worth the frustration.

The first time I rode him on a trail ride we had to cross the overpass over the interstate highway. Dude had done that hundreds of times in his life as a trail horse at Big Tree. I was scared. Dude was unfazed.

When we came to first very deep water that Katharine and my daughter trundled through, Dude stopped, pawed the water and then JUMPED it, landing ever so gently, sideways to land on the narrow trail on the opposite side. I was hanging on and wailing! He kept me in place just fine making that jump. All that day, I hung onto his thick mane and just passengered through the woods.

In our neighborhood where we ride there are lots of loose dogs. Most dogs run up, barking, to Dude's back legs. He ignores them. One day a gnarly looking big dog ran up to Dude's FACE and began barking and snapping at his face. Dude looked at the dog disdainfully and stepped past him, continuing up the road.

On Brown Road cars pass us doing 45, don't move over much and there's very little shoulder. Dude could care less.

When we topped a rise on the creek trail and I saw a snake crossing the path, and I yelled, "Snake!" Dude hesitated a moment and then trotted past, snorting at the place into which the snake had disappeared.

When the wild turkey flew up right next to him on the path Dude was quite startled, but he didn't shake or jump. He just stopped and then balked on going forward as there were more turkeys on the trail ahead... or something...we never figured out the problem that day. Maybe there was a bobcat hunting the turkeys.

Face-to-face with a cow with horns, Dude moved forward at my urging.

He doesn't like to pass strange highway equipment that is stopped standing still and he doesn't care for discarded furniture on the sides of the road, but he'll pass them. He snorts at them, just in case they come to life.

Once, when a strange dog came into the yard, Dude moved in between the dog and my child and me in a protective stance.

When I put a 6 year old on Dude and led him around, he put his head down low and placed his feet ever so gently.

When I had a broken foot in a cast, Dude carried me ever so gently, not even bumping up and down at the trot.

These are the reasons I love Dude, plus his stupid, goofy, trickster personality. And he still thinks he's a super stud when he sees "the ladies." Sheesh.