After mingling around with horses for a while, you begin to discover each of their own unique personalities - their likes and dislikes. Like my horse Hunter is quite quiet, and generally lets you do what you have to do in his stable, except the grooming part. He hates his sensitive areas to be touched. I've watched him ride, and so far hasn't given much problems yet. Rather easy to manage. He loves being scratched under his jaw, is always chewing and licking the back of his mouth, and loves his nostrils to be cleaned. And like any other horse, loves feeding time.
Some horses love their feed a bit more than the average. Stoneman is a horse which will eat anything, including ice. All that is usually required during feeding is to hook the feed bucket on the wall. For Stoneman, what was usually the job of one experienced person became that of three vet students. When we come round with the feed, Stoneman will turn his rear end towards us and start to paw at the ground. Pawing is usually an invitation to enter the stall, but showing his rear end brings the danger of being kicked. And when the horse is so excited, you never know what he might do. Once his front faces us and the gate, we push in, with two students holding the weight of Stoneman's head in the bucket and the last hooking the bucket on the wall. Nothing usually happens to us, except for the occasional head-butt when the horse gets impatient with us.
Feeding is usually an hour after mucking-out (stable cleaning). During that break we would usually just sit in the canteen and wait. Though yesterday, we decided to watch the trainee riders practising at the tracks.
These trainees are under a STAR (Singapore Training Academy for Racing) programme, where trainees are recruited and paid to attend a course. In this course, they learn to ride, control and race horses. Upon completion, they are qualified track riders. Track riders are recruited by trainers, who are in charge of an owner's team of race horses. The track riders exercise and train the horses according to the trainer's regime, while the jockeys ride the horses in races.
The trainee riders take care and ride a stable of horses which no longer race. Hunter and Stoneman belong to this group of horses which act as accompanying or police horses in races, during which they act to calm the racehorses with their presence and to 'catch' a racehorse if it happens to bolt off. These horses are relatively placid, easy to ride and generally have good temperaments; thus, they are also used as training horses. We vet students were assigned to the mildest of this group - Hunter, Siong Ho and Gligger, and work side by side the trainees every morning and afternoon.
So yesterday, we were watching them ride Stoneman and Hunter, and the instructor asked if we rode before. I told him I rode leisurely a couple of times in Melbourne, and he decided to let me ride! When they were done with that day's lesson, I put on the helmet, vest, gloves, and riding boots, and attempted to mount Stoneman. I did not succeed, being stiff with age and work, I simply could not swing around enough to sit on top of the horse. So they had to bring a chair for me, and I could put a foot in the stirrup and swing across. And I rode, badly. I could not hold on to the reins (I had forgotten how to hold them properly). Basically my horse was riding me instead, and the stint was too short for me to familiarise and correct myself. I got off, already starting to stiffen up even more, and feeling embarrased that I still cannot ride properly even though I could boast of having ridden a few times. Still, it was good fun, though too short.
5.moon.sky
6:45 pm