Horse Illustrated Magazine

Most Sunday mornings I trail ride with my friend Barbara. She has a pretty gray Trakehner mare named Dulce who is, shall we say, a tad hyper-sensitive. So I was a little apprehensive last weekend when we met me at our usual rendezvous spot and Barbara announced, “Dulce wasn’t out yesterday, but it’s hot today, so I think she’ll be fine.”

So of course Dulce proceeded to hop, skip and jump down the trails for the first twenty minutes. Poor Barbara looked like she was on some kind of carnival ride.

Have you realized how often we make optimistic predictions or gleefully ignorant assumptions? A lot of times those very words come back to haunt us. I call these humiliating proclamations “famous last words.” Just for fun, here are a few you might’ve heard:

Top 10 Famous Last Words from the World of Horses

1. “I’ve never tried a back cinch on him before, but I’m sure he’ll be okay. He never bucks.”
2. “No, I don’t need the mounting block. I’ll just get my horse to stand next to the arena rail and climb on from there.”
3. “So, for the costume class I thought I’d tie these balloons to Misty’s tail.”
4. “Sure, my horse can jump that high.”
5. “Can you kind of guide me? I’d like to squeeze my truck and trailer between those two other rigs.”
6. “Hop on. We can ride double!”
7. “I found this old pony cart and harness at a garage sale. I thought I’d hitch up Sugarplum and see if she knows how to drive.”
8. “I don’t need to longe him. He looks tired.”
9. “She’s never been in a trailer before but I’ll bet she’ll load just fine.”
10. “Watch this trick I taught my horse. It’s so cute!”

I’ll bet you can think of even more famous last words. They’re uttered all the time in the horse world. In fact, next time you say something that turns out to be painfully untrue, just have a good laugh and know you’re not alone.

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