Bell is my favorite riding horse. She is a monster of a black Percheron mare. My definition for the horses on our farm is that they need to be rideable, drivable and breedable. Bell fits that definition on all fronts. Monarch is her beautiful tri-colored spotted son who is a perfect example of our warm-blood cross breeding that we are trying here. Plus, she’s sweet but she’s not the brightest crayon in the box. That’s really all right with me too. I’m not the greatest of riders anymore…..

I’ve never been a pretty rider, but I can usually keep my buttock where it’s supposed to be in the saddle or near by anyway. I hate when it flies through the air over the horse’s head. That really hurts. But Bell and I are a good match now. She’s not conniving and sneaky. And I don’t bounce as well as I used to. She’s unaware of my lousy leg cues. She doesn’t seem to mind that I’m all over the saddle. I don’t have great balance anymore. I do have good recovery however. She is what you would call “willing” and extremely tolerant. Plus she’s easy to load (in the horse trailer).

I do like large horses, I always have…….they make my butt look smaller (not an easy feat). Bell is all of 17.2 hands. In my youth I may have been able to shinny up her leg to reach a stirrup (probably not though). Now I have a four-step stepladder these days in the trailer and I am not too proud to use it! At home we have “The Stairway to Heaven” in the side yard. It’s a big mobile home staircase. We just walk our overly-tall horses behind it and step down onto the saddle. Voila!

As with most draft horses Bell has a wicked, huge trot. Forget posting, I just grab mane and stand up in the stirrups and keep my tongue from between my teeth. Her trot can hold its own next to a thoroughbred’s hand-gallop…and then some. There’s no sitting to her trot though, not if you want to keep your molars.

In Florida there are a lot of swamps, cypress heads and boggy areas. I belong to a fox hunt and there are a lot of cross-country gallops involved——–hence hoof-sucking mud. Again another benefit having a big ole’ plow horse. Our horse’s hooves work like water-wings…….big ole’ dinner plate-sized water-wings. They seem to act like hover-crafts over the bogs. Fellow, lighter-boned mounts sink right in…..our guys, not so much. Granted a Percheron or a Clyesdale won’t ever out sprint a thoroughbred on a run, but we can tow them out of a swamp.

Here’s another draft horse plus, they have wide, lazy-boy recliner seats in their saddles. Wide-treed saddles are the best. I’ve had two hip replacements so far and I know. Oh, please don’t tell my orthopedic surgeons that I fox hunt, or for that matter that I ride………..I might have omitted that as one of my recreational activities. I think that because of my age, they might be assuming that I tat or crochet or something like that……………….Never!