Riding the Wonder Beast

We had a training session today for one of the riding school students who missed last Thursday's training due to work. Surprisingly we had five troopers and one of the other students show up even though it was Mother's Day. Everyone, both male and female, came out to try and get away from Mother's Day activities. Interesting.

The training at this point is learning our cavalry riding demonstration. It involves some precision riding and a few charges with weapons. It's fun to do but takes a lot of practice. I rode Apache the Wonder Beast as he needed the training too. In past weeks I've been riding him up front in the commander's position but since the real commander was there today, I slipped back into the end of the column to see what Apache would do. With his dislike of anything different or new, I half expected what of his psychotic episodes.

Apache was great, however. He was plenty excited and I had to strain to hold him back a few times but otherwise he hit his marks on time and with energy. He is a strong and fast horse and could easily blow the ears of most the other horses in the arena but I managed to keep him under control through the entire routine at the gallop. It was like flying an F-16 in a formation of A-10s. It was like his slowest speed was the top speed for the other horses doing the routine.

Apache has great potential as a cavalry horse but he has to be ridden every other day to keep his mind in the game. When he's bad he is awful, but when he's good, he is outstanding. Today, thankfully, was one of his good days.