I just looked up my thesaurus word for the A to Z Challenge and I have no idea how, off the top of my head, to use it with the word “spell,” which is the prompt for SoCS.
Now I have that out of the way (did I cheat?), I’ll say that when I hear the word “spirited,” my mind immediately goes to horses. I’ve known some spirited horses in my day. And I’ve known some lazy ones.
Through my 20s, I worked on a dude ranch, taking trails out. Some of the animals we used for the trails always had kids on them–they were the horses that were easy to handle, meaning they did nothing out of the ordinary, never moved any faster than they absolutely had to, and never strayed from following the bum of the horse in front of them. Until we got to the apple orchard. It was fine most of the year, but when the apples started growing, we’d constantly have a paying customer scraped off their horse by the low-hanging branches.
So why didn’t we put kids on smaller horses? Most of them were too rowdy. Or too easily spooked. And apparently people enjoyed being dragged under a tree better than they liked falling off.
I worked at that place for years. I loved it. I was paid $20 for an eight- or nine-hour day, which doesn’t sound like much, but as I often said to people — I was getting paid to do something I loved.
I never thought I’d give up riding, but I have. I don’t have the time or the money for it any more. I’ve been on a few trails, but after leading them myself, I can’t stand being told what to do. The last time I took a trail, I took my feet out of the stirrups to stretch my legs only to be told by the trail guide that I HAD to put them back in. I told her where to stick it (in so many words) but the trail wasn’t very pleasant after that.
I hope one day I’ll be able to start going again. My dream was to own a farm, but that’s never going to happen. Even if I could afford it, it would be necessarily too far away from the nearest hospital for Alex’s sake. But maybe, someday, I’ll take out trails again. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll come across the trail guide who told me to put my feet in the stirrups and I can get her back.
This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. To find out how to join in, click the link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/04/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-apr-2217/ It’s fun!
May 5, 2017 at 12:30 am
Sorry, it took me so long to get to this post. I love horses. I do hope you get the chance to get out on the trails again.
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May 5, 2017 at 11:12 pm
Thanks, Dar. Me too. 🙂
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April 24, 2017 at 3:30 pm
Love the photos Linda and hope that you do get to go out on trails again. I am a little in awe of horses, they are beautiful creatures, but a bit too big for me to get too close to!! 🙂
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April 25, 2017 at 10:07 pm
Thanks so much, Judy. 🙂
By the way, I just dug a bunch of your comments out of my spam folder, right back to April 10th. Not sure why they ended up there.
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April 26, 2017 at 11:05 am
Oh, it is beyond me! I keep being banished to Spam, or my like button comes and goes! All sorts of gremlins in the works!!! 😫😫😫😫😫
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April 23, 2017 at 6:56 pm
My family we like to go on vacation with horses. When I was younger I rode in Maine when we went to visit family.
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April 25, 2017 at 9:39 pm
I’ve always wanted to ride in the Rockies. One day! 😀
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April 23, 2017 at 4:22 pm
Hi, Linda. I, too, miss horses. When I was a young girl, living on a ranch, I rode every day. I kept on riding in different places for the next twenty years in various locations until a physical ailment grounded me. I still love to see them. Where are you in your writing career now?
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April 25, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Horseback riding is a wonderful way to spend a day, isn’t it? 🙂 Sorry to hear you were forced to stop.
I finally decided to split Dagmaru into two; I’m close to finishing the final proofread on the first half. Hopefully it will be published before summer gets here. Thanks for asking and for stopping by, Patricia.:) I hope all is well with you and your family.
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April 23, 2017 at 12:00 pm
We had a pony that used to do that, make for the low hanging limbs. The kids learned to hunch over.
Finding Eliza
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April 25, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Haha! Yeah, you learn pretty quick. Great way to pick apples, too! 😛
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April 23, 2017 at 10:50 am
So hard to say goodbye to something you love. I also used to ride 3 times a week as a teenager. I had this strange connection to horses and them to me. And you’re right….being on a trail ride is tough because they have to follow the rules for the least experienced rider, which sucks when you actually know what you’re doing. One day, again!!
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April 25, 2017 at 10:15 pm
Yes! Too bad we don’t live closer – we could go together. 🙂
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April 26, 2017 at 8:04 am
That would be nice! I miss riding a lot…but tiny humans and the expense of it get in the way. Only so many hours and dollars in a day. 😦
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April 26, 2017 at 9:48 am
Yep, tell me about it. I rode right up until I had kids. Since then, I can count he number of times on one hand. And my eldest son is 22.
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April 26, 2017 at 2:33 pm
That isn’t bringing me hope, lol. Did you ever take your kids riding?
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April 23, 2017 at 8:12 am
I spent some time with horses – in my early 20’s – interesting to learn that you and I share that, too.
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April 25, 2017 at 10:16 pm
It is! Very cool. 😀
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April 23, 2017 at 7:23 am
The only trail ride I’ve done in the past 50 years was a riding tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. The guide was more tour guide than horse-rule enforcer but we had one of those along, just in case. I think the horses knew what to do. I hope you get back in the saddle at some point.
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April 23, 2017 at 3:46 am
I’m not much of a horse rider but they are magnificent beasts!
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April 22, 2017 at 11:52 pm
I had a horse for a year in my early twenties and miss being around them. I’ve thought about volunteering with a therapeutic riding program for mentally or physically handicapped people (maybe they’d let me ride eventually) which would take care of the money thing, but there’s still the time thing. Do they have those kinds of programs where you are?
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April 22, 2017 at 9:32 pm
Oh wow. Now I see Dagmaru background here that didn’t get to come to fruition. Not that it should, it’s not about that, but I see it, ya know? That’s neat stuff. I have a “healthy respect” for horses, and prefer to see them from a distance. I admire you muchly for this.
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April 22, 2017 at 10:03 pm
Thank you, Joey. 🙂 Yes, I come by my horsey research in Dagmaru honestly, and my foodie research through a good friend. 😉 😀 ❤
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April 22, 2017 at 10:10 pm
❤
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