When I was 14 or so, we moved from the big city (of 200k people) to a smaller country town of Deer Park (about 4500 people.)
My mon and step-dad had decided to buy some land and get off the grid. And ride horses.
So, they convinced me that I really needed a horse (no real choice in the matter) and they located a green broke registered quarter horse named "Sundance."
Sundance was like a miniature war horse, all muscle in his massive legs, barrel chest, and tree-like neck.
Sundance's registered name was "Breakin the Law" which I thought was pretty cool, since Judas Priest had a song of the same name.
What I should have realized is that "Breakin the Law" could also mean "Breakin the 14 year old boy who doesn't know anything at all about horses."
Thing is, Sundance was 4 years old, and green-broke.
That means that if you're a skilled rider, you might be able to ride him. Or he might flip out and cause massive destruction.
He was really squirrely and was libel to rear up and do dangerous things when you attempted to put a saddle blanket on him.
In truth, I was mighty terrified of the beast. I had a Monster Manual; I knew about NightMares. Sundance was a NightMare.
Clearly he'd been abused, and I really did like feeding him grain or a carrot, and brushing him out. I just had zero desire to ride the beast. He was like a steroid-poppin viking; fun at first, until the berserker fury erupted.
I managed to ride him less than a dozen times; the last time my 2 step sisters were riding their green-broke beasts when my goats charged behind us, startling the horses.
They when galloping through the pine forest, and my younger sister broke her shoulder. I ejected Sundance and caught a pine tree in the chest area.
I survived, but I'd had enough. I was terrified of Sundance, who was terrified himself.
He spend the next dozen years eating alphalpha hay on my parent's farm, before they sold him to somebody else.
And yeah, he was still a spooky green broke beast.
- Daniel
