Grassbrook Equine

Well, it is the 4th of September- my husband's birthday, and to a point, Christmas for Onggy!   This last week has been a long one- We've had trade cattle to sort and get organised for sale, Lambs to draught and also get organised for sale... I have managed to ride 3 times in the one week!!! Which is generally completely unheard of! Between paperwork/officework, kids and school, the normal goings on of a week..Somehow, I squeezed in some very satisfying quiet grooming moments with Ong Bak, and that has ended up with being in the saddle and down the paddock riding.  My last blog post was rather glowing, regarding my first experience riding him, but nothing was an exaggeration, and after Michaels' comment (thank you so much for that!) , I've been getting a much better picture of how special this stallion actually is.

 I rode him again Thursday, to bring in some Brahman trade cows (mad eyed lanky things that they are) and that was a relatively sedate morning- getting from the house to the paddock was not the usual time wasting effort.  Once you get into that trot, the extended stride eats up the ground and makes the ride really enjoyable. Even though all the scenery and general farm junk was new to him, having never been beyond the fences of the stallion paddock, he was unfazed. We brought the cattle up, yarded them, and then wandered home again.  2 hours of beautiful spring day on a big kind horse. Not a bad way to spend a morning. 

Given we needed to bring more cattle in yesterday, I saddled up again, and out we went, though this time, he knew exactly where we were headed.  We brought the cattle in with the help of a motorbike and 2 vehicles, Onggy taking all things in his lovely big stride- He didn't care about the vehicles at all, and when we charged around after the occasional breakaway, he was on the ball, and had his big ears trained on the beast the instant that they made the break..  I'm a bit leary of tearing around the countryside after beasties; I have too many aches and pains, am too fat, too slow, and generally not the rider I once was, therefore chasing snotty cows at a wild gallop across the countryside isn't a huge drawcard for me-The ground is too hard and I keep having mental video of the splat I would be if I lost my balance or control... but I forgot myself out there yesterday, and with such a solid, responsive horse under me, got into the spirit of things and was ACTUALLY HELPFUL, as opposed to being the tail-person who spends the muster poking at calves and the dodgy injured animals, trying to get them to walk after the mob, as opposed to lie down and hide...

So, after having  a pretty satisfying week, and now knowing that Ong Bak is the lovely horse he has proven to be, he has been given "Christmas", and let in with 2 of our very on-heat mares, being Juliet's Pride, and CM Midnight...the other 2 are yet to be "on" enough for him to go with...maybe tomorrow morning..