I have riddin Roman just a couple times this month. I also rode him the day before yesterday. It was a lovely day. Roman was bored and jealous of me working with Popeye. So, I took Roman to the round pen, which is quite a feat, because I have to lead him through a crowd of 4 other horses in the pasture to get to the round pen. Being a 17++ hand stallion, weighing 1650 pounds, and having a mare in heat sniffing his leg does not make things easy when moving him by myself! But, we got through the crowd and into the round pen. Roman ran around both directions as directed. He was interested in the other horses hanging their heads over the fence, but knew he had to behave.

I saddled Roman and climbed up into the saddle. We rode around both directions for a little bit. The other horses went off to eat hay. Roman is so, so, so big compared to Popeye and everyone else. He is so broad, with the muscles and extra weight he has right now. When you climb up and look down at him, it feels like you are on top of a bull. You can feel the mass of flesh under you and it can be quite intimidating, especially when he is making wierd breathing sounds, like a snorting bull. He could smell the mare and the geldings that had been in the round pen before him. Being a stallion, he has to take in all those dfferent scents.

I decided to take Roman to the farm and ride out in the open fields. I had to go hook up the horse trailer first. Roman was already to go so I had to get hm to stay where he was while I went off to hook up the trailer. We don't have anything sturdy enough to tie a horse to. Plus, the other horses were still loose in the adjoining pen, including the mare in heat. Luckily Roman is hobble trained. I hobbled him and wrapped a lead rope around the tope fence rail (can't tie it) to slow him down and give me more time. I went into the house to get my truck keys. When I came back out, I saw Roman down on him knees, nose poked under the bottom fence rail, trying to get a wee to eat. Remember, I hobbled him.... I called to him and he hopped up to his feet, still hobbled. When I first saw him down, I thought he fell. No, it was intentional on his part.

I got the trailer hooked up, got Roman out of the round pen and loaded. At the farm Roman seemed a bit excited. I thought, "Oh great." We were lucky enough to have a freshly plowed field to ride in. My husband was plowing it as we rode. Poor Roman didn't have a clue where he was. He felt lost. He wanted to follow the tractor for a while because it was moving. Maybe it was alive....not. The earth was soft and deep. It was a round or circular shaped field with a center piviot irrigation unit.

We walked around the field for a while until Roman was comfortable. We trotted  quite a bit, too. But the best part was when we gallopped! Have you ever read the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley? In the books Alec rides his big stallion "The Black". Alec races his stallion across fields, in the deseret, along the beach, with a power like no other beneath him. The Black's muscles flex and ripple while Alec tries to contain the powerful beast beneath him. The wind whips his face as they streak across the ground like a bullet. Alec realizes the intensely powerful creature beneath him could do as he pleases and knows that they are moving as one, that it is a priveledge to be able to do this. It was very much like that while riding Roman in the field.

Roman is a super powerful horse. He's currently weighing in at over a ton and a half! It was all I could do to just hang on to the reins as his head pumped forward while galloping across the field. It was so exhilerating, too, to know that you have all that power and strength under you, with a mind of it's own, yet this creature chooses to let you be in control. We ran back and forth across the field many times. I had full contact the whole time because I could feel what would happen if I gave him his head--I wouldn't have had control. And the field wasn't long enough for that! It was amazing how quickly we covered ground. My shoulders were so sore the next day from holding Roman at a gallop like that. It really was intense. What a ride!