Seth-5yr has had a burning, urgent summer long request that today - finally – we fulfilled. The child HAD to ride a horse. I was happy to oblige. I like horses.

Note the dimples. They say it all, right?

(if you can’t see them, I think the pic gets bigger if you click on it. those dimples are worth it. photo credit: my mom)

I wanted my mom to come with us and maybe also ride, and she sputtered at the idea. Which was amusing enough, but then she said, “What?! Horses? That is SO unnatural.”

“Horses are unnatural…?!” I made an unfortunate snorty laugh sound right into the phone.

“No. Riding horses is unnatural.” (As if this made so much more sense.) “I’m supposed to sit on a horse that is, what, FOUR feet WIDE? I don’t think so.”

I couldn’t talk her into it.  Clearly. But she graciously came along and we had a lovely day.

Caden-7yr was… nervous. Very, very nervous.

Seth-5yr, checking on his brother.

Caden-7yr’s nerves settled after about 10 minutes and then he chatted nonstop with the woman who was leading us.

This is the guy who owned the place, and my mom photographed him because she couldn’t believe the gun he carried.

I didn’t notice, and didn’t hear about the gun until lunchtime later. “Kelsey? It was a huge pearl handled six shooter thing strapped to his leg!”

“Nope. Didn’t see it.”

Then the boys told me what guns and knives the other cowboy had who had ridden with us. I didn’t notice those either. I did notice the first guy’s really crazy eyes though, and that creeped me out. Later I found this picture I’d taken, and noticed the very appropriate sign that I hadn’t seen earlier.

In my defense, I was too busy thinking about clouds and trees, lizards, kids, canyon walls, blue sky, horses, hanging on to Seth-5yr, and interesting rock formations. The boys wanted to discuss none of those things, though. They were too busy discussing horse poop and the flies who feast upon it.

Ethan-11yr said it was fine that I didn’t notice the weapons, since “9 out of 10 times, you don’t see something you’re not expecting to see.”

“So… all of you were expecting to see guns and knives today?”

“No. That must have been our 1 out of 10.”

Of course.

When we’d ridden down into the canyon, I explained to Seth-5yr what to do with the reins  and handed them off to him.  He put on his deeper than usual business voice and said, “It’s a beautiful day to be on a horse, Mom.”

And it was. It was a good idea he had.

When we got back from our hour long ride, Caden-7yr got off his horse and promptly collapsed to the ground. The guide looked at him and laughed and said he had Cowboy Spaghetti Legs – and mentioned that was the fattest horse they owned and that probably had something to do with it.  Caden-7yr jumped up and was okay.

Tonight we curled up on the couch and watched Secretariat and Caden-7yr expressed interest in becoming a jockey.  So sweet.

Seth-5yr thanked me all afternoon and evening. He snuggled up to me and kissed the back of my hand repeatedly while we watched the movie.  He kissed my cheek. A lot. And when I tucked him in just now, he sighed happily and said, “Today is the day I really started to yuv horses, Mommy.”

Big day.

I’m so glad I got to go along for the ride.

Be Sociable, Share!

•