Spence is a horse… Spence was a race horse… Spence was a race horse who trained on the beach… Spence can really run.
Being someone who wanted horses since I was knee high to a grasshopper the opportunity to spend much of my vacation on horseback was more than I could hope for, and to be spending my vacation on a horse like Spence was a dream come true. Sam has three horses, Luna, Seth, and Cullen and due to the nature of her work she gets plenty of opportunity with other horses. Spence is one of the horses is currently getting to work with. This worked out nicely for me because Luna is Sam’s horse, Seth is retired, and Cullen is an absolute dog, he just happens to have the body of a horse. So it works best if there is another horse around if Sam and I are going to be able to ride together.
When we rode together there was never really much problem at all, Spence is happy to go where ever Luna is going, and while Luna is a bit skittish, he is for the most part a very well behaved horse, and Sam is more than an experienced rider. That is not to say I don’t know what I’m doing with horses, but I don’t have the experience Sam has. Spence is a well behaved horse too so long as he is with Luna; this is where I ran it trouble with Spence.
Both Spence and Luna are big horses, and they are both event horses, that would be horses used for jumping. It does take a somewhat spirited horse to ride him at a large solid obstacle and expect him to jump over it, both Spence and Luna are such horses, they’ll both jump most anything you put in front of them. Most horses have a mind of their own anyway, but it does take a little more to be an eventer.
Over the course of the three weeks I was in New Zealand me and Sam made several trips down to the beach, while on the beach we ran Spence through the ocean, something he loves to do, we ran Luna through the ocean a bit to, but it isn’t something Luna cares for much, the ocean is a bit spooky to an already skittish horse. As long as the two are together, they do just fine, and are fairly well behaved. I wouldn’t exactly say they liked each other, but they really don’t like being apart.
I’d been down to the beach several times with Sam, and toward the end of my time there Sam wasn’t sure she was going to find the time to get another ride in, so she told me to feel free to take Spence down to the beach on my own. At this point she’d seen me on horse back enough to know I could handle Spence, and I wasn’t going to get myself killed. So one morning when she had some errands to run in
As we came to the place we usually exit the road there is a fork, on path leading to the beach the other I’m not quite sure where it leads. Again I let lose on the reigns, and as soon as I did Spence went cantering up the wrong path. Again I stopped him, turned him around and headed down our normal path to the beach. While Spence has always had a mind of his own, he was exercising it far more now than he had so far. At moments I wasn’t sure if he didn’t know the proper path or was just taking the wrong paths to misbehave, but he did so time and time again.
Once I got him down to the beach I had second thoughts about running him in the ocean, but I wasn’t quite sure, and figured it was nerves being there without Sam for the first time, so I set aside my reservations and took Spence at a gallop through the ocean. As we made our way down the beach he would again try to turn around anytime I gave him too much control of the reigns, I’d then turn him around again and continue down the beach, this was a little more complicated now than on the road as waves were crashing into us. I found as he’d turn to go back I would be slightly out of balance, but nothing I couldn’t control… Until he managed to turn as a wave crashed into us. I was thrown completely off balance, and found myself plunged into the ocean, my foot still in the stirrup… Spence no free to turn back and run towards home. For a moment I pictured myself being drown unable to get my foot from the stirrup, and held underwater, but it was only a flash, I reached up, grabbed the stirrup and freed my foot, and felt myself fall from Spence. I stood up just in time to see Spence galloping down the beach…
As I walked out of the ocean, soaked completely through I decided sooner or later Spence would probably get tired and would stop running, so I started walking down the beach, Sophie by my side, watching Spence get further and further away. I wasn’t alone on the beach; there were plenty of people down enjoying the beach, some on motorcycles, some down surfing, and some just enjoying the beach. A few people ahead made an attempt to stop him, but he ran right past them. It would have been about five minutes later that I came to the same people with a little dog. As I walked up I asked ‘have you seen a horse run by about so tall without a rider?’ holding my hand a little above my head. They said they had tried to stop him but had no luck. As I was talking to them my attention was more with how far away Spence was than my immediate surroundings, and I was paying no attention to Sophie at all. That is until she started chasing there little dog… Sophie has always had a bad habit of picking fights with who ever is around. I quickly chased after Sophie, and grabbed her by the collier apologizing to the people for my dog having tried to kill theirs. I then excused myself and continued up the beach.
After about another ten minutes, now I can’t see Spence at all, and I’m wondering just how long this beach is one of the motorcyclists rode up to me and stopped next to me. Again I ask, ‘you haven’t by chance seen a horse running up the beach without a rider have you?’ ‘Yeah,’ he replied, ‘my friend has him up the beach, hop on I’ll take you up there.’ So I hopped on the back of his bike and rode up the beach. I rode up far enough to wonder just how long the beach was and if I ever would have caught up with Spence. But soon enough we came to his friend who was walking up the beach with Spence. I was hoping Spence would have calmed down enough that I could mount him with out too much trouble. I thanked the guy for the ride, and his friend for holding on to Spence and I took the reigns. They stood by and watched as I put my foot in the stirrup, they didn’t seem quite sure he wasn’t going to take off again. As I went to hoist myself on top of Spence he took off again before I was on his back. This time I had a strong grip on his reigns and was able to stop him before he got away from me.
I thought to myself I might be better off just walking him back to the path home and riding him home from there, but it had to be close to three miles up the beach, so I decided to walk him over to the sand bank where I would be on the up hill slope from Spence and could mount him much more easily. I still had the audience of the motorcyclist and his friend, and at it was appreciated as I wasn’t so sure I wasn’t going to need to chase Spence down again. Standing on the edge of the sand bank I was much higher, and it did put me in a much better position to
The two on the motorcycle started after him again, as they passed me I shrugged my shoulders in an expression of ‘what was I gonna do?’ And watched them ride away. It was at this moment I stopped to look around me and realized Sophie hadn’t been able to keep up with me while on the bike. I’d lost Sam’s horse, and I’d lost Emily’s dog… Again I started walking up the beach. Wondering just how long it was going to take to catch this horse.
As I walked up the beach the ideas flashed through my mind of Sam getting home to find me gone, and wondering how long I’d been gone. She wasn’t sure how long her errands were going to take so I had pictures of her arriving just minutes after I left and after a couple of hours beginning to worry, or arriving at seven in the evening, finding me not home and the sun setting soon, wondering where I was and what had I done with her horse. As I walked down the beach I found a cap belonging to the friend on the motorcycle. I picked it up and continued down the beach. There was one bright side, tracking Spence wouldn’t be difficult at all, he left prints very easy to follow in the sand.
After another ten minutes walking up the beach a guy pulled up in a little SUV. He looked like a Maori, though he very easily could have been an islander. He offered to give me a ride, and again I made my way up the beach at a decent speed. It didn’t take long to catch up to Sophie who did seem a little lost, but didn’t seem terribly upset about it. I called her from the window of the SUV, and when she looked she had the look on her face of ‘I don’t know that car.’ But was more than happy to come over and hop in. At least now I wouldn’t have to face Emily’s rage at having lost her dog, now if I could just catch that horse.
Not long after we caught up to the couple on the motorcycle, I handed her the cap, and they told me they had no luck catching up with Spencer, and he was still running down the beach in the same direction when they gave up pursuit. I thanked them and continued down the beach in the SUV.
We came to an area of the beach that had several fallen trees on it, it was looking something like a no-mans land, I was beginning to get worried that Spence’s intentions might be to run completely around the island when I saw Spence, now running towards us… I breathed a partial sigh of relief. The guy driving the SUV asked ‘how you intend to catch that horse?’ ‘I’m not quite sure,’ I answered. I opened to door and hoped out, I did my best to put myself in front of Spence, at this point cantering down the beach, but he easily ran right around me. I ran back over to the SUV, and jumped onto the back, standing on the bumper, holding onto the rack on top, and we again started to pursue Spencer.
This time we easily caught up to Spence, and with the SUV were able to pace Spence. When we got along side him he would try to match our speed, when we sped up he sped up, when we slowed down he slowed down. So we slowed down to a trot, and then got him to slow down to a walk. At this point I jumped off the back of the SUV and tried to grab Spence’s reigns, but he wouldn’t hear of it, again he took of at a canter, and again I jumped on the back of the SUV and pursued Spence down the beach. Again we pulled up beside him on the beach, set the pace, slowed him down to a trot, this time I jumped off a little ahead of Spence and jogged along side him hoping to get close enough to grab his reigns, but again he wouldn’t have it, and just waked up the side of the sand bank. At this point the SUV couldn’t follow so I thanked the guy for his help, he let Sophie out, and me and Sophie climbed the sand bank to find Spence.
As I reached the top I saw Spence at the bottom of the other side looking a little lost, no longer on the beach was better, but he wasn’t quite sure where he was… He wasn’t alone, I wasn’t quite sure where we were or where the path back was. Even when I did catch him I still had to find the way home and it was a big
I became nervous that I’d some how missed it. It would have been quite impossible to miss it, he was a horse walking in the sand, they can’t exactly cover their tracks in the sand, but after a while I managed to find where he had made his way up the sand bank, and I don’t know if it was just luck, or maybe he knew what he was doing, but he had managed to find the path. With Sophie running circles around me we continued to track down Spence.
My concern that maybe he didn’t remember the trail from earlier was completely unfounded, he had followed the exact path home that we take to the beach. He had made his way through the forests in which he always makes false turns every time we ride through… It would be hard to call him a stupid horse, but not at all hard to call him an ass. As I walked the path back, probably between three and five miles it started to poor down rain. I thought what a mess I must look, soaked in sea water, my boots still squishing, carrying my helmet, and getting rained on. Again I imagined Sam getting home and finding Spence in her drive way me no where in sight… At least I brought him back… I later learned that this had been a topic the girls had discussed on there way into town, the possibility of getting home finding Spence and no me. Really at this point I was just hoping Spence had the sense to not walk down the center of the road, people fly down the road and it has several blind corners.
Once I got to the road it became much harder to follow Spencer’s tracks as they don’t quite make as obvious of a trail on a hard packed road, but I could still see the occasional shoe print, and of course every single one I did manage to find was right in the middle of the road.
As I came to the top of the hill in which I could see the opening of the drive way home I saw Spence had made it back just fine with out me, and I had managed to beat the girls back. I walked up the road and as I came closer to Spence he once again turned and walked the other way, insistent that he would not be caught. Have I called him an ass yet? That’s okay, while he is smart, he is still just a horse and now catching him would be little trouble to me. Rather than chasing him down, I opened the gate and made my way up the drive to where Luna was, took him by the lead and walked him down the drive. As soon as I walked him into the road Spence could no longer stay away and walked right up to me.
He had on his return trip completely snapped his reigns. It did occur to me to grab him by the halter and punch him in the head, but then he is a horse, taking out my frustration on him would have been completely lost on him, and would have probably just sent him running again. So instead I just took him into the barn, took of his saddle and bridle and let him loose, moments later the girls arrived home.
I told Sam of all that had happened, of my losing her horse, losing Em’s dog, chasing them up and down the beach, getting tossed off twice, and the long walk home. She asked ‘So has this cured your love of horses?’ ‘Naw,’ I replied, ‘Do you feel up for a ride?’
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