Getting Ready to Ride

June 2010

Red screamed, stretched his neck out and uttered a barking cry. His long teeth showed through his drawn back lips, and his shiny rust flesh shook. He called again and again. Loud!! I am going to ride this horse today? OK. Cowgirl, UP!
I began my practice at my friends’ Palmer, Alaska farm. Wondering whether my mended hip would take to the saddle, I determined to get started slowly and increase my riding time. My dream of a weeklong trail ride in the US southwest was scheduled for fall. No time to lose.
Red was calling to the two new horses on the farm. He is a big stallion, trained as a barrel rider, and today’s pasture time separated from the others had failed to calm him. A sting of a dozen cars arrived, winding over the gravel road, coming for an apple orchard tour. As Sandy led Red down the farm road, me astride, he continued to scream. All the tour people stared. At the lower field, Sandy asked if I wanted to take him across a grassy area. Do I want Red to go tearing up the hill by all those apple folks, a screaming meemy, with me bouncing and hanging on for dear life? Not a good day to try that, I decided.

Now I’m riding an appaloosa named Banner. Tan with brown spots, he’s a gentle but greedy horse, pulling his head down to grab a mouthful of dandelions. “No, Banner!”
Sandy is on a part Morgan horse named Zizi, chestnut brown. She’s a weed eater, too. Today we trotted and cantered. I was posting a little, but found I needed to grab the saddle horn some - still strengthening my leg grip! Banner has also had an injury, so he stumbles now and then, but he catches himself and continues on. Sandy’s teaching me to curry, saddle, and bridle a horse, something I may have known once upon a time long ago. Those chores take longer than the riding time, so I’ve begun to appreciate the work that goes into owning a horse!

July 18, 2010

Cowgirl, no up today! Rain. Banner and Zizi have been standing in it for hours. Mud’s on the road. Horses soaked.
Instead, share some farm work. I get to pick tomatoes and talk with one of my favorite people, 93 years old! Doris teaches me to pollinate squash flowers. I didn’t know the flowers are male or female! Then she sends me home with a bag of broccoli and sweet strawberries.
On the way home, I spy fancy boots and picture myself riding in them and walking safely in snake country. Maybe I’ll consider those rather than my old black dress winter boots?

August 3, 2010
Marilyn decided to learn the highwayman’s knot. Oh, that’s how to tie a horse! Slip, flop. Oops. That’s how Banner untied my knot. All evening I tie up my horse around the furniture, around my leg. Ouch! I think I got it. Ssip, pull the other end for a quick escape. Now, if I could only mount the horse that quickly!

August 6, 2010
I wrestled myself up onto Orca. No, not a whale, a pinto horse. Rachel and I had signed up for a two-hour trail ride in Seward, AK. It was pouring rain all morning, but by 3 pm was overcast with no precipitation. Orca was the caboose horse in a line of eight. We rode along black sand, river rock, salt grass marsh, and into forest. We rode near Resurrection Bay. The trail often had deep black mud, and we crossed rivers and streams a dozen times. Apparently Orchy-Porky acts up with some riders, but we did all right together. The only time he tried to go to sleep on me was in a soft black sandy spot. (“He has narcolepsy,” his owner laughed.) Another time Orca stopped in the middle of the swiftest, deepest river to pee. (“He likes to get a reaction from people,” she said.)
Along the way, coming and going, we saw a moose across a river that never moved? Stuffed? I wondered. Many eagles flew over and posed in trees. There were two big eagles’ nests built of big sticks. A baby was sitting near one, five weeks old, about to leave the home nest for good.
After two hours, I wondered if I could get down. Stretched my right leg over, slid down, blew breath into Orca’s nose for goodbye, and wobbled toward the car.