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Gavilan aka Gabby

My riding horse...

This horse is my dream horse ... I got him as a barely weaned 4 month old colt, and he's been the driving force behind my getting into Barefoot.

The young lady riding him (below) in these 2004 pictures is Cody, a wonderful girl who helped me with the horses one summer.

She and Gabby had been with me at the Potter Valley Rodeo that day. She was riding Kadence, who she rode in the barrel racing event, as I sat around on Gabby, watching the events and encouraging the other competing members of Redwood Riders, a riding club I supported.

Most of the rodeo was interesting to Gabby, who is an ex endurance horse and accustomed to lots of activity.

When the bronc and bull riding started? Gabby was ***very*** interested, watching the bucking, whipping his head around to see what my reaction was to all of this naughty behavior.

He was most impressed that everyone clapped when the rough stock bucked. He was particularly interested in the bucking horses - people actually clapped and yelled when the horse bucked the rider off! I was so busy watching his reactions that I completely missed the events.

He was amazed that bucking was okay,... watching him process this should have been a red flag.

When we got back to the ranch, Cody threw a bareback pad on him and popped up on him. Then, as they cantered off, Gab began a series of rolling and gentle crow-hops, his bronc impersonation.

Cody stayed on fine in spite of being bareback.

We made sure he understood that Bucking is okay at Rodeos only.