Dad is now retired and spends a lot of time out here with his three horses and gentling all the young horses we have on the place. He's very good at that and he is a lifetime horseman who has taught me a lot whether I agree with all he says or not!
Mom is recently retired and it dawned on me not long ago that she may have felt left out all these years when we were off riding somewhere and she sat on the sidelines and watched. She made a comment that she would go with us if she could ride Spike. It went completely over my head when she said it. It dawned on me several hours later that she was trying to hint that she wants to ride too!
I think it's fabulous! Her mother didn't get her drivers license until age 60... and now my Mom has found a new hobby that has her smiling and giggling and that's not something I've seen a lot from her over the years. It truly makes my heart swell.
I invited her to ride on the annual "Friday Before Mother's Day Ride" that a friend of mine started up several years ago. It's a ride that has drawn over 100 women in the last couple of years. You start in one town... ride approximately 7 miles down a converted railroad track to another town... eat lunch, socialize some more and then ride the 7 miles back.
I told Mom we could have a trailer at the half-way point if it got to be too much for her. She said "If I'm going to do this, I'm doing it all!" That made me smile. But in the MEANTIME she's coming out and riding to get herself into some riding shape before the big one. She's doing great. I've been teaching her some little things at a time and she's a very willing and eager student.
Yesterday we had a debut with a ride at a local lake. There are miles of trails and you could spend quite a few hours out there puttering around. We ended up riding about 2.5 hours. I thought that was a good start and both she and Dad hung in there like champs.
ME, on the other hand.... had an episode with our green 4yo Paint mare within the first 1/2 hour! A sharp stick poked her in the butt and sent her into accordian-style bucking and blowing. I lasted about six jumps (according to my husband) before I lost my seat and gravity took over. I must admit that I consider myself a pro at "landing". Lord knows I've had enough practice in my 47 years of learning horses the hard way. I did bounce my head on something, but I'm not sure it was the ground when I landed, or when I tried to do a back somersault to tuck and roll out of the way of my still frenzied horse.
Anyway... it's all good. The mare settled and stopped with the other horses rather than fleeing the scene (yay). And she stood nicely for me to get back on. And then we rode for another 2 hours! So it was just a random stick-in-the-butt incident that turned out ok.
Oddly enough... nobody was really worried about me lmao!
Oh well! Today we'll try 'er again. :-)
A friend of mine who is a CTR veteran came along and was kind enough to take a family picture of us. Starting from the left is Dad on Sunny (aka LG), Vanessa on my Rosebud, Mom on Vanessa's Annie, Me on Janie! and Jay on good ole Spike.
This photo is priceless to me. My only regret is that it doesn't include my other two daughters. But it's one I will cherish.
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