Real cowgirls wear helmets…
A cushioned saddle would have been nice too.
This weekend, my sister, nieces, and I went horseback riding. Ginger and I had a horse when we were kids but it had been alot of years since we had been on one (her 2 girls went horseback riding with their dad last year so they were old pros). Dearest sissee thought it was pretty funny that I got the horse named Big’Un - possibly because he was a good size horse or perhaps because she has had 3 GIGANTIC babies and is still 2 pants sizes smaller than me. Good sisterly competitiveness never dies, it just takes more subtle forms. I take comfort in the fact that I just ran a 1/2 marathon and she can’t run the 20 feet to her mailbox without coughing up her spleen. Additionally, her horse’s name was Rebel 
He did give her a little shit, so that was cool!
Anyway, it was a swell way to spend an afternoon. We are having some unseasonably warm weather for this time of year and a ride up through the hills was just lovely. For as long as it had been, I loved being back on a horse again. I had forgotten how much I loved it and I thoroughly enjoyed soliciting stories from our guide, who was in front, and the owner, who was behind us. The owner appeared to be in her mid to late 20’s and was breaking a new horse onto the trail. He did not want to climb the hills, and at one point sat right down in the mud with her on his back. I envied her ease with his unpredicable nature and could see that these girls not only had a deep knowledge, but a deep respect for the horses. It made me nostalgic, or more acurately, wistful - because I had never developed that kind of relationship with our horse. And I would have liked to. I never do spend much time yearning for what might have been but riding Big’Un made me wish I was like our guide - that I could non-chalantly say “oh I’ve been around horses all my life.”
Comment by Bill Horne
Tuesday October 04 2005 @ 8:39 am
Hey Lara, finally got around to checking your blog. Great story and pics about the half, I could feel the pain, and the joy. Good writing. Thx for the links. Expect to finally hear today from mis amigos Colombianos when I leave for Bogota, maybe tmo. Moral: don’t ever let someone else organize your trip!!
Got back to running seriously today, and will update my blog soon.
Bill