Heigh-Ho, Bunny! Away!!

Whining to my sister, Willow, on the phone this morning, about how stressed out I am with school, Kumo, the puppies and everything, she said she knew exactly what I needed: a relaxing day of horseback riding.

I've never been on a horse. As kids, we never had anything so fancy as horses. But Willow has taken to them, and encouraged me, telling me that it wasn't hard. She also said she had the most gentle gelding in the world for me to ride. So I headed over to the boarding stables where Willow lives, to give it a try.

When I got there, Willow was out in the field practing riding, on her pretty mare, Patches. She was riding around these cones in a great big figure eight, but really, really fast. I decided pretty quickly this was NOT what I wanted to do.

Willow assured me that that wasn't what she had in mind, and introduced me to my mount, Tonka.

Tonka is GIGANTIC. Well, at least he seemed that way to me when I was trying to get up on his back. I had to hop up on a tree stump to even be able to reach the saddle!

Willow held the reins, and I jumped on. Eventually.

Willow gently informed me that the proper way to ride a horse is NOT wrapped tightly around its neck, and was chock full of other good riding advice as well.

She showed me how to hang on while Tonka trotted by running him around in a big circle, on a lunge line for a little bit.

After that, we were off on a trail ride! Tonka followed Patches through the pasture of the Lisle family ranch.

We saw a little baby horse who watched us for a little bit, and even followed us around the pasture for a while. He was awfully cute.

As we rode, Willow and I got to talking about her and her horses, and she wanted to show me the jumping training she's been doing with Patches. After wandering the trail for a while, we headed for the jumping course, where Willow showed me riding (slowly) around the cones, and then jumping over a big hurdle. It was really graceful, and a beautiful thing to watch.

She asked me if I wanted to give it a try, assuring me that Tonka loves jumping. I was feeling pretty cocky after my successful first trail ride, and figured what the heck.

It did not go as well for me as it did for Willow.

I immediately swore off horses.

But Willow convinced me that "Getting right back up on the horse that threw you" was more than just a cliche', that it really was good advice. So she caught Tonka (who'd gone off to have some grass in the pasture) and put me back on him in the pen.

It was okay, and I was glad she got me back on him. The fear went away pretty quickly, and I rode him out in the pasture around a couple of cones just for good measure.

Still, I won't be trying jumping horses again for a long time.

Anyway, thanks for a wonderful afternoon, Willow! Thank you, Frank and Karen, for letting me ride around on your wonderful ranch! It was great, and just what I needed!