Bob's Surprise Run

We recently picked up a new horse for the Army named Bob. Bob is a former Cowboy Mounted Shooting horse that we picked up in Tombstone. He is a big boy. We weighed him last week and he came in just under 1,300 lbs. When you cinch him up you can see the fat wrinkles around the girth. He is also slow. You have to use your spurs to get him out of a walk and then you have to keep after him to maintain your gait. However, he is also very friendly and calm. Guns and other scary sounds and objects don't bother him and he is willing to do whatever you ask of him. Today, I rode him in a ceremony for the first time. He did very well standing in formation for an hour even though he was standing next to a horse he hadn't been introduced to yet. As we got closer to the portion of the ceremony where we perform our charge, I began to worry about how he would perform. I had this image in my mind of trying to spur a reluctant horse from a trot into a gallop in front of the post's senior leadership who were present for the ceremony. However, at the end of the ceremony and as we positioned ourselves for the charge I felt a sudden change in Bob. His head came up and I actually felt myself restraining him a little. Then the order to charge was hurled into the air and off we went. Bob surprised everyone by pounding up the field ahead of every other horse there. Even Regent, who had a bad start, couldn't catch him. Although Bob is not a blazing fast horse like Cochise or Apache, everyone, including me, was amazed at Bob's speed.