A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Whoa, when I say Whoa

Last night Ed and I were watching tv and the previews for a some show had the characters in Arizona riding horses.

"Hey," Ed said. "When we buy a second home in Arizona and start spending time there, we can learn to ride horses!"

Cute. Also, not a chance. I proceeded to tell him about my horseback riding experience. My one and ONLY experience, I might add. When I was somewhere between 10 and 12, my family was firmly planted in Tucson and we decided to go horseback riding. I mean, we were living in the Wild West, after all. So my family and my aunt's family headed out to the stables. My mom and aunt were knows as the "purse holders" in the family. That means that they would never partake of any activities, but were happy to sit on a bench holding purses and wallets and bags for everyone else while we did our thing.

So we got (corralled?) five horses - me, my dad, my uncle, and my two male cousins. And off we went. My horse was named Gluefoot. We started trotting along and, even though it was not a comfortable ride, things seemed fine. Then the other four horses started trotting faster (I'm sure there's a horse word for that but I don't know what it is). Old Gluefoot stayed in slow trot mode. Now the rest of the group was slightly ahead of me, then the distance grew. We were in the middle of the desert and they were vanishing from my sight.

I yelled out, "Hey, wait up for me." My cousins taunted me to go faster - apparently not realizing it was the horse who had total control over the situaiton and not me. So I started to cry. "Wait for me!!!" And cry. Finally my dad looked back and said, "Just give the horse a little tap on the side with your foot and he'll go a little faster." So I did. Okay, maybe the tap was a little too hard. I was scared, ya know! Next thing I knew old Gluefoot took off at a gallop (that's a word I remember) and we passed the rest of my family and now I started screaming, "Make him stop! Make him stop!"

The guy from the stables who was riding close to us galloped over to me and stopped the horse. It wasn't anything terribly dramatic, except to my 10-12 year-old mind. By now I was sobbing and just wanted to get off the four-legged monster. So the stable guy guided me and Gluefoot back to the stables where I happily sat on the bench with the purse holders for the rest of the afternoon.

And that, my friends (oh, crap, did I actually just say that?) was the end of my equestrian experiences.

6 comments:

namaste said...

awww sandi! i can certainly understand. that would put the fear of the "four-legged monsters" in me too.

i gotta tell you, as i read and saw that you were the only girl, i knew it would end badly.

;)

ba and the boys said...

nate and i were talking about riding horses the other day. he has ridden them at a farm (the kind where the horse in on a track and they can only go around in a circle), but i havent. nate tells me 'mom, you're getting old. you'd better do that soon.'.
after sandi's story-i think i would rather be old and never have ridden one!

Nikki said...

I totally relate to this for 2 reasons, first I have turned into the purse holder and 2nd I had a terrible experience on a horse. We were in the Uintas a national park in Utah camping for a few days. My dad had a couple of horses and we took them out riding one day. Of course we had to take them on the narrowest trail on a cliff that went straight down, because that is what men find FUN! So my dad is in front of me on the trail and turns around and says "If the horse loses its footing, bail off to the left". The only thing I heard in that entire statement was bail off to the left and so I did. I flew off the horse and was looking at the underbelly of that huge beast. Later that night during the "tick" check I found one ON MY BUTT CHEEK! Never again. I hate camping to this day. FUN post! :)N

It's Me said...

OMG! Gluefoot got a foot to the butt and went wild, huh? I like to horseback ride only if the horse is 20 years old and taking its last breath!!!

Jenni said...

As a horse lover, I think you should give them another chance.

Anonymous said...

haha!