Demon Tamer

Running Free- Whether I Want It Or Not

Warning: this is a sequel. The first is called Even Demons Have Their Moments. You do not need to, but if you want to understand some of the pats of the story, please read it!

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"Be wary of the horse with a sense of humor."

~ Pam Brown

I tried to have a proper ride, I really did. One with exercises and training and everything. I even had a plan for what we would do. Some exercising to supple Demon up and make him listen to me better and then going through some of the maneuvers in the third level test we had competed in last month. We got 65% in that test. We won the class, but it still wasn't good enough. Now that everyone knew Demon was related to the top dressage horses in the world anything below 70% just got bad looks from people. I was starting to know the looks. Some people believed that Demon did all the work and I just sat on top. Some people. Others had seen his inventive ways of getting me to fall off. Apparently it was quite amusing. To the people who didn't fall face first in the dirt, I mean.

But, despite my really good plan, that's not what really happened.

Why?

Because Demon had a different plan.

We were just doing a counter canter that, I must say, was really good, when he suddenly changed leads and started going straight ahead and faster. He did a whole lap of the ring picking up the pace.

Faster faster faster.

All I did was hold on.

Don't get me wrong, I know how to stop a horse that is galloping out of control. I know how to bring a horse back down and under control. I could write books on all the techniques, Demon taught me a lot. But, despite all the many techniques I do know, Demon knows more and has a counter action for all of them. Anything with the hands he just ignores. Legs he laughs at. And seat, well let's just say that doesn't work. And at that point, I run out of aids with which to stop him. I've tried running him into a wall, too, but he jumped over it and kept running with a smug look on his face.

Faster faster faster.

No, stopping him isn't exactly what most people call possible.

So, whenever he gets into the mood to just run and run and run, I let him. All I have to do really is hold on, wait for him to get bored, tired, or both, and then ask him to behave again. Some of my best rides came after a good long gallop. It's part of our warm up.

I sighed, held on tight, and waited.

On the third lap of the ring, he decided he wasn't in a flat race anymore and jumped the fence. I was surprised it had taken him so long to decide this.

We flew through the fields as usual. I watched with slight interest to see which route he took. He had about five different routes that took him out of the farm and all of them involved some kind of horrible surprise.

He chose the short route that went through the field that belonged to the psychotic Friesian, Poko.

Once through that field, leaving Poko bucking and kicking out in frustration at losing their little race, Demon had a nice long lane to go down with no interruption.

After the mortal terror and annoyance wore off, I started to sit up in the saddle. It had been a long time since I got to just ride. Lately, everyone had been demanding something of me. Tilting my head back a little, I let the wind blow against my face.

I'd love to say it went sweeping through my hair as it billowed out behind me, but that would be lying. I'd have to be suicidal to ride Demon without a helmet. And bullet proof vest. And my hair was in its traditional braid. Practical, keeping my hair out the way and untangled.