Lately, my life has encompassed four life's worth of work. At least. I am probably underestimating the volume of my labors. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I scheduled in a horse ride with a dear friend of mine. She is constantly and very gently reminding me that I might need to take it a little more easy and smell the saddle leather a bit, and I have to admit she is very right.
So in the vein of friend rightness, I slapped a horse ride with her into my ol iPhone calendar for a couple weeks in the future. That glorious day arrived faster than I anticipated and before you could say manure in the trailer I found myself bumping down to Farragut State Park in my friend's big white Dodge dually.
Farragut is where we go to ride when we want to leisurely trot around without complication or care. Or if it is hunting season. Riding a big brown thing through the brush when it is hunting season can sometimes be more of a good time than one desires. Anyway, we arrived, got the horses out of the trailer, and proceeded to spend twenty minutes giving some town folk from Boise a bit of a pony ride. Seriously, my friend is the sweetest woman in the whole world, and considering the hand that life has dealt her, I find myself in awe at times when I see demonstrations of the generosity of spirit. She really is a peach, and we made that family's whole day by leading them around on Buddy, her big buckskin gelding.
While my pal was leading the last family member around, I finished saddling Sadie. She is a special kind of horse, and by special, I mean she has quirks. Sadie is a super sure footed mount, with plenty of get up and go. You can put in a twenty mile ride on her back and she will still be rearing to go. There's just this one thing, she is randomly freaked out by the most random of things. We can pass three hundred rocks and there will just be this one rock that spazzes her jollies. Upon freak out she will spin a complete 180, sometimes while rearing. I love that horse!
One of the biggest compliments that my friend has every given me is that she told me I am one of the few people who can ride Sadie. Now when it comes to equitation, let me tell you, I am a complete nobody. I have absolutely no polished skill at horseback riding. None. Zilch, Zero. However, the one thing that I have going for me is that when I hit the saddle, there is not an anxious bone in my body, and horses know it. I spent years on my sister-in-law's dude ranch breaking in the green horses on the trail. I guess I just got used to jumps, bolts, and spins, because that is my favorite way to ride horses, the ol' Who knows what's going to happen around the next bend paradigm.
We also had a yearling in attendance with us. My pals like to pony their young foals on the trail. It's a great way to get the future mounts used to all that a trail will throw at them, and I have to admit, Whiskey handled the exploding frail adolescent turkey poult that blew up in front of us like a professional. Sadie only reared a bit, and I have to say that her performance shocked me. Was she feeling okay?
Later, a sign that announced a trail closure caused our first and only 180 during the entire ride. I read the upcoming fracas about twenty-two minutes in advance too, for I saw the sign and her ears dance like a drunken wind chime a few strides before the spin. Sadie's overall zen vibe was definitely confusing me.
The biggest shocker was when we were cantering down a logging road. My hat blew off and as I slid Sadie to a stop and hopped to the ground I came eye to eye with a coyote who had been chasing us unawares down the trail. He did not like the fact that his cover was blown and darted into the bushes. I burst out laughing as did my friend. The horses hadn't even noticed.
In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable rides I have had in years. Who am I kidding though, I think that about every horseback ride. My friend thought that was probably why Sadie was so chill too, the mare must have picked up on my complete and utter happiness to be there. She wasn't wrong.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's running out of everything and probably going to be retired soon iPhone.
