The Color of Munny

I have been remiss in posting, due to some unforeseen circumstances, and now must play catch up. It is cold and rainy today, so I had plenty of time to review my Diary and repost the most interesting entries here.

My last post had our barn being visited by the cirkus. I also fell and hurt my hip, not badly, but enough to garner a lot of sympathy and carrots, and a stick in the butt. The day after the cirkus got here, and I was still on stall rest, Trooper witnessed the funniest thing. He was turned out in the lower paddock, above the lower arena.

Voltare was working with his human in the lower arena. I have said before how striking Voltare is. He is really a beautiful horse, and the sad part is that he knows it. He’s also a complete prig and one of the snobbiest horses I’ve ever met. His half sister Lula is the complete opposite. She likes everyone, regardless of his or her station in life. So anyhow, Voltare is working his human and into the arena comes the cirkus horses with their human. I must have looked befuddled because Trooper elaborated. There were three horses, and they shared one human. Why would three horses share a human? Can’t they afford to each have their own?

The three horses, one letting the human ride it, and the others ponying off of each side, started walking and then jogging around the ring. Voltare ignored them and continued to work his human, evidently not satisfied with how his human was sitting his jog. Trooper was bored with grazing and rolling so he watched the horses working.

Voltare and his human were working big circles at one end and the other three horses were at the other end working their human. Trooper was growing bored again, when something strange happened. The human from the cirkus suddenly stood up on the back of the middle horse and started riding him while standing up. Trooper about fell over from shock. He’d never seen someone riding while standing up. I haven’t either, and had I been more awake I might have questioned the truthfulness of Trooper’s story, but those jabs by the sticker man were still making me drowsy.

Trooper remained at the fence, his eyes glued to the human standing up on the horses. After a few rounds riding on just the middle horse the human stretched out his legs and had one foot on the two outer horses. He then loosened his reins and the middle horse surged ahead and was out in front. The two middle horses moved closer. Whoever heard of such a thing? Why would a human ride with their feet? Why would anyone need three horses to do the job of one?
Trooper said it was fascinating to watch and even more so when the horses picked up speed and were cantering around the ring. I was impressed. Most humans can barely stay on at a canter while balancing on their butts! I don’t think I know of any that would be able to ride with their feet. After several loops around the ring the human guided the three horses over toward the rail and even had them take some jumps. IMAGINE? Jumping on your feet? Trooper said the jumps were in the short pony range, but it’s still impressive.

By now Voltare and his human had stopped working and were watching the trio of horses. Trooper said Voltare looked disdainful, but his human was interested. When the cirkus group finally ended their work out and was cooling down the human was again on the middle horse. Voltare and his human rode along side the trio and Trooper said he could tell the two humans were talking. Voltare ignored the other horses, even though they offered a friendly greetings. He’s such a prat sometimes.

After a few trips around the arena Voltare’s human guided him into the middle of the ring and they started doing some western maneuvers. Trooper said Voltare was really showy; sidepassing, pivoting and doing some one beat lead changes. It really horks Trooper to admit a western horse can do dressage exercises, but even he has to agree that Voltare is a great show horse.

Once Voltare stopped his demonstration something strange happened. His human dismounted and the cirkus human got off of the middle horse. They exchanged reins and the cirkus human mounted Voltare! Trooper said Voltare looked like the sticker man had jabbed him in the butt! Troops is so funny when he tells a story, because he mimics facial expressions. The cirkus human guided Voltare to the middle of the ring and Trooper said even though Voltare was furious (his ears were pinned) he was still professional and performed flawlessly. Trooper was really miffed that he was too far away to hear what the humans were saying, but he could tell it was aggravating Voltare tremendously. Just when Trooper was bursting with curiosity his human appeared and haltered him. He hated to go back to the barn and miss the excitement. But instead of heading toward the barn she led him down to the lower arena and stood outside the fence.

Trooper’s human is young, about the same as a four-year-old filly, but she’s also quite pretty by human standards, and most male humans notice her quickly. Even those with herdmates get a little snorty. When she approached the fence Voltare’s human greeted her and told her what had been going on. The cirkus human finally finished with Voltare and rode over to the group and dismounted. He patted Voltare’s neck, which got him a nasty look and more ear pinning from Voltare. Then he and Voltare’s human started discussing the horses. Trooper was all ears!

First the cirkus human was saying how nice and pretty Voltare was, which had him looking smug, but then the smugness got wiped off his face when the cirkus human offered to buy Voltare. Trooper said Voltare just about sat back on the reins he jerked his head up so fast. Voltare’s human brayed a bit, but shook his head like he had a fly in his ear. Trooper said his human was open mouthed. Then the cirkus human offered a larger amount of munny ( something that I don’t understand, but humans set great store by) Trooper said Voltare’s human quit braying and got really quiet. Evidently large amounts of this “munny” stuff makes humans mute.

Trooper and his human waited in silence, but finally Voltare’s human shook his head again and said he couldn’t part with his horse. Trooper said Voltare looked like he was going to collapse in relief, but also looked angry, because he knew his human had considered the offer. Trooper said the walk back to the barn was subdued, even his human was quiet. (Rare, to be sure). When they reached the barn Voltare was tied in front of the tack room to be untacked, but Trooper was tied in the aisle so he could be brushed. He whispered to Lula, Shorty and Lucky what had happened (I was dozing in the back of my stall) and he said they were all shocked, but then Lula started whickering and pawing. Trooper said she teased Voltare unmercifully for the rest of the evening. He got madder and madder and finally kicked his buckets off the wall! Imagine him having to face the shame of being a traveling cirkus horse! To have to perform with camellamas and trick dogs! Oh, the humiliation for a horse of his talents and pedigree. I’m so glad it happened to him! Now he can’t snort down his nose at the rest of us! It almost makes being scared by the huge cat-beasts and the Effelumps worthwhile just to have Voltare reduced a few hoof lengths in stature! More later.