One morning, I woke up with this wild idea to go horse riding. Now, I had never been on a horse. Oh sure! when I was small, I would ride the ponies at the carnival. You know where they are tied to a bar and go around in circles. That wasn’t quite what I had in mind. Besides, my feet would have dragged on the ground, if I rode one of them. No, I wanted to be like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Hop-a-long Cassidy. I wanted to ride a horse out on the range. I don’t know what was wrong with me when I came up with this idea. Maybe temporary insanity. Of course some people have insisted that it was and never has been temporary.
I called all the guys in the group and told them my idea. Each and everyone thought it would be great. We’d get our girlfriends and all go riding and afterwards have a cookout. Little did I know that all my friends had ridden before, at least one time in their life. This would be my first. The earliest we could get the horses, was two weeks. Some of us decided what the heck….. lets get cowboy hats and shirts go the whole 9 yards and dress for the occasion. Man, was I excited.
As the time drew nearer; I started showing fear. What the heck was I thinking of. I don’t like animals bigger than I am. But my friends assured me that everything would be alright.
When the day came, I told everyone that I thought I would stay at the stables, they could go ahead and ride, have fun and I would be waiting for them. After everyone started making clucking sounds, I decided what the heck I’d try it.
When the old "cowpoke" came out with the horses, I took him to the side and explained I had never ridden before and needed a small horse. He just kind of chuckled and told me that he had just the right one for me. He brought out this sweet looking mare and said her name was Buckets…..Buckets!….why that was the same name as Dale Evans’ horse. He told me that this was the gentlest horse in the area. Buckets….with a name like that, I knew in my heart that this horse had to be good. I looked at her and attempted to get on. After the fourth try, I was finally able to straddle her. The old "cowpoke" held the reins as he explained how to control her. He made it perfectly clear that I could just let the reins loose and she would just follow the other horses, and if I wanted her to stop just say whoa and pull back on the reins.
Everybody saddled up and off we went. Buckets and I in the middle of the pack. Half the people in front of me and half in back. I felt save as a baby in its Mothers arms.
As we were just slowly strolling along , I would start sliding off the saddle first to the left, then to the right, back to the left and so on. I did not feel that I was going to be able to stay on this horse for long. After about an hour, I was starting to get the hang of it. Not sliding back and forth, but actually sitting "tall in the saddle." I was talking to everyone and just having a good time. We finally got to this open field and the guy says "Now here is where we let the horses run a little. Those of you who do not feel confident enough to run the horse, stay here until we get to the other side of the field and then you can just let the horse walk across" My girlfriend leaned over, told me that she would stay with me, we could walk our horses over together. I told her that was not necessary, go ahead and run your horse with the others, that Buckets and I would walk across the field after everyone else had gotten across. Everyone took off. Buckets started acting as though she wanted to go but I firmly pulled back on the reins and said "WHOA". Buckets decided she didn’t want to whoa; she wanted to go. So we went. I kept yelling "WHOA" and pulling back on the reins. Now maybe she was a foreign horse and thought I was saying go. Because this sweet little horse became a Tornado. First I passed my girlfriend, then Mike, then Don, then everything became a blur as I was passing everybody, yelling whoa, pulling on the reins, sliding from one side to the other, thinking any minute I was going to be on the ground. Finally, as I was passing the guy that was leading us, he grabbed hold of my reins and Buckets came to an immediate stop. After the horse stopped ,and I was able to get back "tall in the saddle," my heart started beating at regular intervals, and I was finally able to get my eyes back down to their normal size, I was able to say "What the Hell happened?" Just then some of the group came up to me and said that they had thought I decided to stay back. What made me decide to run the horse? I looked at everybody and just said. "Well…Buckets just seemed to be lonely back there, so we decided to catch up." I don’t think anybody believed me ,as I started hearing little chuckles all the way back to the stables.
After the days ride we headed back home for the cookout. I really enjoyed the cookout, lots of barbecue. Since that day, I have never been on a horse again. But I still eat….. .Hmmm I wonder what that means