Working with horses, you get used to things turning out completely wrong at times. Especially when the horses aren’t on a training programme and can spend all their mental and physical energy on doing things they shouldn’t. For example, breaking the gate to their own paddock.
That’s what happened the other day. It was evening feeding time and I had just finished some photographing of the mountains, when suddenly the two mares, Tapestry and Tappen who share the northernmost paddock, ran out in front of the stalls and I just had time to think: “Not towards the road!”, and then they ran into the large paddock. So I ran as fast as I could and closed the gate behind them.
And then we just watched them running around, bucking and kicking and playing. There was just so much room in this paddock, compared to their own tiny one, and they were so excited. They were so beautiful, moving with that energy, I could have watched them for hours. That’s how we want them to move when we ride them too, but only the really good can manage that. I’ve only ever been kind of on the same continent. And that was still amazing.
Maybe fifteen minutes later, they felt that they were done and walked up to the gate together, waiting to be lead back into their own paddock and their evening hay. So much for escape and adventure.
Katja Malmborg 