A different perspective

A different perspective indeed: from atop a large horse! As a little girl I was absolutely fascinated by horses and I read all the books -- Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, National Velvet, all the Black Stallion books. I had horse figurines and toys. Even my Barbies had a very nice horse. I was obsessed, just ask my mom. Since I was a really artistic kid too, I filled sketchbooks with drawing after drawing of equines. Now of course this meant that I was never allowed to ride a horse ever, since the intensity of a child's desire to do something is inversely proportionate to her parents' resolve not to let her do whatever that thing may be. They never did relent, so I reached adulthood with that huge gaping hole in my list of experiences: never rode a horse. (Except for when I was six and my mom let me go on a pony once around a ring -- but that doesn't count!) Stood on the lip of an active volcano, check. Camped on the beach, check. Climbed a 14,000 foot mountain, check. Rode a horse? Nope.

So at some point I added it to my list of Things I Want To Do Before I Die, and last year I let Pat know that it would be great to go riding sometime. And bless his heart, for Christmas last year he gave me a gift certificate to Academy Riding Stables. I love this man! I was so excited to finally get the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream!

We wanted to wait until there was decent weather, but then wedding season kicked in and there was never any time to redeem my gift certificate. Finally, at the end of October, we made a plan to go horseback riding. This was very exciting indeed. Let me explain that Academy Riding Stables is more of a tourist thing than a serious rider thing; they are situated at the western edge of the Garden of the Gods and they do guided horseback tours through the park. They don't do riding lessons or anything like that. It's pretty much a dude ranch experience and they'll take any level of rider, even someone like me who's never ridden before.

So that's what we did! We went on a one-hour, touristy, guided tour of Garden of the Gods on horseback, and I had the time of my life. I didn't have to do much of anything but keep my butt in the saddle. My horse, CJ, just followed the horse in front of him. I swear I had the silliest grin on my face the entire time. CJ was so large that I had to stand on a platform to mount him, at one point he made a half-hearted attempt to scrape me off, my back was aching by the end of it, but I didn't care because I did it! I rode a horse! Thanks Pat, I love you!