Have To Brag...

For those of you who don't know, my bestfriend, April, and I have a carriage business together. About 6 month ago we purchased a "new" horse for our Christmas season. Jesse is a 17hh (5'8" at the shoulder) Belgian (like a Budweiser horse) gelding. Jesse has a condition called Equine Polysaccharide Myopathy (EPSM) which means he lacks the ability to metabolize sugars. Since he can't handle sugars he has to be fed a high fat, high protein diet. This will make the best of horses "hot." In the 6 months we have had Jesse we have had the opportunity to drive him only 4 or 5 times and until last Friday only one of those times was in downtown Riverside. Every Christmas, for the last 13 years, the Mission Inn hotel has put up decorations. Over the years there have been street vendors and entertainment added, but the one consistent draw, besides the Inn, has always been a carriage ride to see the lights. And every year we always do the same route, until this year. The city has decided to take over the event and is going to give each carriage company (there are 3) a dedicated route. So our horses have to be confident in us as drivers, not just comfortable with the route.

Than being said, here's where I get to brag...

Last Friday evening, April and I brought Jesse into downtown for a "training session." We did not exercise Jesse, or lunge him, or anything. We took him from is paddock and loaded him in the trailer and off we went into downtown. He did so well. He went down the busy streets, into the parking lots, over manhole covers, across water in the gutters, stopped at the stop signs and signals and never broke into a trot; although he was walking as fast as he could walk for a short while. About an hour into our "training session" we decided to "test" him. We decided to take him up under the freeway overpass and over into the Metrolink parking lot. Now remembering that horses are a prey animal and they are more flight than fight we headed up Mission Inn Ave towards the freeway. Jesse had his head has high as it would go and he was walking as fast as he could, and it was not until 2 "hot-rodded" trucks went by us while we were under the overpass, and he could not hear me that he kind of "freaked out." Now most horses would not of even gone under the overpass, hello it looks like a cave (were mountain lions and other predators live) and there is a very loud "growling" noise caused by the big trucks going by overhead, yet Jesse went where I asked him to go. And in that brief moment, when he could not hear me, all he did was tuck his haunch's under him as shuffle to the left. I pick up my hands and asked him to step back to the right and he was like, "oh, okay, there you are," and he was fine. When we got to Metrolink we did not encounter 1 or 2, but 3 trains. Whistles blowing, crossing arms, flashing lights, clanging bells. Not hardly a notice. We were soooooo proud of Jesse, then came the realization that we had to go back under the overpass to get back to the trailer. Nowthat he was aware of what the overpass was and would be anticipating it and we figured there was going to be one of three outcomes. 1. He would refuse to go under at all. 2. He would spook and run off, or into a car or oncoming traffic. or 3. He would, although not sure of himself, walk under the overpass without a problem.
As with all freeway offramp/onramp overpasses there is a signal light on both sides. So of course just as we are approaching the underpass the light turns red. So there we are first in line, waiting for the light to change, all the while Jesse has time to stand there and think about the "mountain lion" waiting inside to eat him. And to add injury to insult the right lane was blocked with more horse eating items such as orange cones, flashing warning lights, and caution tape flutter in the breeze, forcing us to use the left lane and leaving us no way out in case of a mental melt down on Jesse's part. The light turns green and Jesse step off as if he knew for a fact that there was no horse eating mountain lion roaring under that bridge. And as luck would have it, just as we stepped under the overpass, here it comes, the extra large charter tour bus with the air brakes on the left, the group of boisterous teenage boys on the right and somewhere in the middle of it all a car horn. Jesse took it like a pro, although a very nervous one, he never broke from a walk. His head was as high as he could possibly hold it and he was as collected as he could possibly be, but he walked, with my reassurance through the cave of the horse eating mountain lion. As we cleared the far side of the overpass, we thought we were in the clear, then once again, the light turned red. Now like any small kid who jumps into bed to keep the boogie monster under the bed from grabbing his feet, most horses would run from the scary noise behind them, or at least not stand still for one moment, much less the duration of a traffic signal. Not Jesse, just as the perfect boy he is, I asked him to stand at that light and he did not move a muscle. Now whether it was because he was scared to move for fear the mountain lion was going to get him, or he was fearing me more than that mountain lion, I'm sure I'll never know. But I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo proud of him. He is worth 10 times what we paid for him, more than his weight in gold, all 2300 pounds of him.
We made it back to the trailer in one piece and he got his reward of a whole bag of carrots.

And if anyone out there thinks that their horse could do the same, while pulling a carriage on a cool, breeze fall night. Let me know how much your asking for them.