Nov 20, 2008

Photo Story Friday

PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Last summer the family and I took a trip up North to Greenhorn Guest Ranch. This vacation was possibly the best family vacation we have ever taken. Seriously people, it was like summer camp for families!


Now, I have had limited experience with horses. My one time riding was as a teenager. It was me on a friends horse with a half cast on my leg. Sparing you the details I'll just say this, riding a horse for the first time with a cast on is not recommended.

So here I am at a Ranch where the main activity is horse back riding. Needless to say I was really nervous the first time I got up on my horse. Who am I kidding, I was nervous everytime I sat my butt in that saddle.

The first two mornings of our week at the Ranch I took lessons. There were a lot of people in the lessons so we all ended up doing far more sitting than riding. Many of the riders were just there so that they could qualify for the advance rides (show offs).

Me, I was just trying to feel comfortable steering the massive beast between my legs. By the second morning I was feeling a little more confident. My first trot around the arena went pretty well. However, after the first go around I noticed that my saddle seemed to be leaning to one side. Hmmmm, this could be bad.

Now I had already been telling as many ranglers as possible how scared I was of the horses. I was making my wimp status well know hoping that they would baby me. One would think I would have spoke up right away! Nah, I picked that moment not to speak up about my horses saddle feeling lose. I mean, they always double check the cinch once you mount your horse. Surely I was just being paranoid.

I'm sure you can probably guess where this story is headed. Yes folks this story is headed straight towards the nasty pee/poop filled arena dirt.

It wasn't pretty! One minute I'm bouncing out of control on my horse and the next minute I feel my saddle falling off the right side of the horse, with me in it. As I started falling off the horse I could hear the rangler yell, "GRAB HIS MANE."


Grab his mane?? Are you kidding me? So I did the inexperienced rider thing and grabbed the saddle horn. This of course only sped up my exit off the horse.

At this point I knew I was going down so I just kind of went with it and prayed that the horse didn't step on me once I was in a prone position near his hooves. He didn't. In fact he stopped the minute I fell. This wasn't all that surprising considering the saddle was now hanging down by his belly.

So for the remainder of the week I became known as the, "Oh, you're the one who fell off the horse" guest.

I will say this....the one good thing about falling off the horse was the it gave me a perfectly good reason to stick to the walk rides. Which was just fine by me!

When I was introduced to my horse Dapple at the beginning of the week all of the Ranglers said that he was the funny guy in the bunch. Great sense of humor they all said. Well, when I landed on the ground and looked up to see where the Dapple was, I'm pretty sure I saw him laughing at me!

22 comments:

Rachael Schirano \\ Rachael Schirano Photography said...

ha! what a great story!

Anonymous said...

Grab his mane!! LOL hahahaha ;)

I would have grabbed the horn too because I would have been scared of hurting the horse!

Anonymous said...

Oh and for the record? Nice butt.

A Crafty Mom said...

LOL!!! And I agree, nice butt shot :-)

Unknown said...

That is hilarious. I would also have been afraid of hurting him by grabbing his mane.

Chris said...

That is a terrific story! It's probably not appropriate for me to comment on the butt shot, so I'll stick to: That sounds like a great vacation. I would do that in a heartbeat -- and probably fall off the horse too.

nikkicrumpet said...

Awwww horses are the sweetest critters on the planet....I'm sure he felt really bad about your tumble...ok maybe he snickered just a little! Still sounds like a great vacation...even if ya got a little horsepoopie!

Debbie said...

Great story. I'm laughing - with you of course.

scrappysue said...

you're as good a horse rider as i am!!! totally with you

tiarastantrums said...

oh, funny - yes, grab the mane- it so DOES NOT hurt the horse at all!! Your saddle was not tight enough - that is why you fell off - so not your fault! Blame the rangler!

Sam_I_am said...

Sometimes, horses will be sneeky little buggers and hold their breath when they are being saddled, that way their saddles aren't as tight. I went riding in Colorado once and since I know how to ride, they gave the other girls the easy horse and put me on one named "Fiasco." Reassuring, huh? Then they said, "Don't let anyone get behind him." Oh. My. God. Then, another group came up behind him and spooked him and he started to rear up, all this on a mountain ledge. Fortunately, God must have glued my butt to that saddle, cuz I stuck!

Mammatalk said...

Oh, I would have grabbed the saddle horn, too. Good to know.

Lindsay said...

What a hilarious story! I'm sure not so much at the time, but definitely later ;) I'm jealous, though. I've never learned to ride a horse and have ALWAYS wanted to. I'm seriously considering putting it on my New Year's Resolution 2009 list. I'm glad your family had fun!

sassy stephanie said...

Oh I know! I think grabbing their manes will hurt the poor things!

Sandra said...

You poor thing... I believe horses DO laugh!!!

i left an award for you on my blog!

Mrs Anne said...

Love the "mane shot" :)

Glad you are ok, and I hope the rest of the weekend was fabulous!

xoxo

Mamarazzi said...

glad to hear ya survived! phew!

i left a little love for you over at my place.

you. are. welcome.

Jenners said...

Horses are very scary and way bigger when you get right next to them than when you look at them from far away. Kudos to you for doing it. I did ride a horse bareback once ... in the ocean. It was on my honeymoon in Jamaica, where they are a little loosey goosey with safety and pesky little stuff like that. It was terrifying and exhilirating and I lived to tell the tale!

magpie said...

omg- i'm so sorry but i'm HOWLING over here!!! just one more reason in my i don't need to try that column!!

Anonymous said...

haha...horses scare me a little. I am always scared when I ride one that I'll fall off!

Straight to Your Hart said...

You will never forget that is for sure...snicker..snicker! Not only funny horse but clever as well. Sometimes checking them twice is NOT enough..had a few of those happen to me during childhood. Hmmm is that what happened?!!

Rhonda said...

I'm scurred of horses!!! My daughter's dream is to never get OFF of a horse but me....I'd be ok never getting ON!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...