Trail Ride

I love horses. I have since I was a little girl. I would make a 'horse' out of snow in the winter for me to ride. I would pretend that my bike was a horse in the summer. But being a city girl, my dream of having my very own horse is yet to be realized. But whenever I get the chance to be on the back of one, I take it.

When I was a early teen, I went to summer camp at Cran-Hill and took horsemanship. We "got a horse" for a week and were responsible for the care of that horse all week. Everyday we would ride and learn everything that you could learn in a week about the care of a horse. I was in heaven. I will refrain from naming the horse that I had, since my husband will tease me about my warm fuzzy feelings I have for her. She was a stubborn girl with a mind of her own. But I had so much fun with her.

I loved the feeling of flying through the air on her back. Her muscles rippling with every step. It was freedom to me. We would run through fields splattered with wild flowers amongst the tall grass. the sun shining down wrapping it's warm arms around us. We would silently walk through valleys lined with trees. We would splash through creeks, walk high ridges over looking the wild flower fields. It was a piece of Heaven. Truly, when I think of what Heaven is like, I think of that time in my life, on the back of that very special horse.

When I was a teenager, my old boss owned a stable in Byron Center where she boarded horses. Her home was out in Middleville and she had about 15 horses there too. She would let me come out and ride whenever I wanted. She had a beautiful old horse named Lizzy and that is who I would ride. For one reason, she was very gentle and for another I could ride western with her. Many of the other horses could only be ridden using an English saddle. My boss had told me that she would teach me Dressage (a form of riding with an English saddle), but sadly, I had to leave that job to start my career in the medical field before I had the chance to learn.

So here we were, Mother's Day Weekend and the opportunity for me to again be up on the back of a horse. Even though it was cold, windy and rainy, Kevin agreed to take me on a trail ride. Surprise, surprise we were the only people who signed up for the trail ride.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited to ride again. It had been years since my last opportunity. Some things never change, like the feeling I get when I am about to get in the saddle and then some things do.... like having to wear a helmet.

Helmets on, the speech they always give was done, it was time to to saddle up.

The young lady that was helping me brought over this step stool and set it down next to the horse. I looked at it, looked at her and said "do I have to use that?" She said that it was standard, and I said, "It is like cheating, if it's OK, I am not going to use that." She smiled at me and said that since it was just us, I could get on the horse the right way.
After mounting up, I looked over at Kevin and asked him if he used the step stool.... He cheated. Enough said about that. We did have a good laugh over it.
It was time to go, for the next hour I was in my happy place. Walking through the woods, on the back of a horse with my husband right behind me. It wasn't a very quiet ride. Kevin kept up a pretty good conversation with one of the trail guides (we had two). The girls heard all about how we met, how long we have been married, how many kids we have... El, the trail guide who was leading us, had just gotten engaged two weeks prior, so we talked about that.
As we came back to the barn, we stopped for a gate to be opened. our horses started to graze on the grass. When it was time to start moving again, I pulled my horses head back up and kicked him to start walking again. As we began to move, I turned around to make sure Kevin was following me and I witnessed one of the funniest things I have seen. I am assuming that Kevin had pulled the horses head up, as I did, but his horse was mad about it. He stared to toss his head all around and paw at the ground. This kept up for a few minutes. Kevin was at a loss for what to do. El called out that he needed to kick the horse, Kevin called back that he was. His horse was being so stubborn. Allysa (the other trail guide) finally got off her horse and led Kevin's horse back to the barn. I was laughing so hard. It really was a great way to end our ride. Another great memory with Kevin stashed away in my memory bank (hopefully he feels the same :-).

Blessings!!