Horsing Around

Cindy’s Dad has a good horse a Tennessee Walker named Flash, when we moved to California last year I was told stories how Cindy rode all the time when she was a kid, family outings included riding her horse Shoney, her cousin even told one on how he had come to visit and Cindy suggested “After supper why don’t we go ride Shoney” he had lived out of town at the time and had never seen this horse so he was excited to go for a ride, on the way to the arena Cindy tells him “You can go first” (this should have been his first clue right), he said he noticed barrels set up but didn’t think much of it, he mounted Shoney and next thing he knew the world was a blur, yes he was in the middle of leaning into the first barrel, the turn was made and the next barrel was coming into view, to make a long story short he never fell off and to this day Cindy laughs so hard you can barely understand her when she tells this story, she had left out the small detail that she was a barrel racer.

After we got settled in her Dad was ready for Cindy to begin riding Flash so finally we got out with him to saddle up Flash, got the stirrups adjusted and waited for Cindy to begin her ride on Flash, she looked natural sitting on Flash but her expression changed when Flash wouldn’t move, Dad says go on I know you can ride, Flash begins to hop around and will not leave the fence where Dad is standing, She gives up and dismounts Dad is explaining that she should be able to ride, I pipe up that it shouldn’t be a problem for her and to make a long story short here I am opening my mouth once again and sticking my foot in, I have had diabetes for thirty five years and due to complications I use a cane and or crutches to walk so it is usually quite hard for me to stick my foot in my mouth, well here I am in the saddle to prove how easy this is, good thing for me it turns out that Flash is a “Mans Horse” I actually rode for about half an hour around the pasture, Cindy’s cousin sure got a laugh out of this.

Now we are in the process of looking for a horse for Cindy, Flash needs a partner anyway and I would like to see her have one to call her own, we made an hour drive to look at a few horses today and it really saddens me to see how some people actually take care of their animals, in my mind if you are going to own any animal it becomes family and you need to take the time to make sure they are fed and taken care of, animals have feelings just like we do and it is important to know this before committing to bringing one home with you, this is material for a whole other post though.

We will find a Horse for Cindy and maybe I will even be brave enough to ride Flash when she goes out, I’m looking forward to the look on her cousins face when he hears the words “You can go first” on his next visit.