I was on a ride to the creek with these tatted up lesbians that come to ride every week, these girls are the funniest creatures to grace the backs of my horses.
And now this ride was the first time I put them on different horses, I put the smaller, more skilled one on young Meriwether, the amount of riders he has had on him are ONE, that would be me. So I was a little worried but I got to ride old Dewey, the anchor of the ship. I figured if I'm on the masthead, I can sort of control how safe our ride is when I'm riding a gentleman, so off we went on a new adventure.
The thing I wanted to try was once we got through the tunnel, maybe we could canter up the big hill that gets you to the top of the wilderness. Meriwether has not really cantered with a rider (that would be me) on him, I've only done a few seconds because he is the size of a matchstick and I am the size of a volcano. It is a little hard to balance on a tiny horse and I want to do right by him, and have success so he will canter easily for his whole life. We are setting up his habits for the future.
I guess I did the same things with my kids. Little bits of things at a time until they were all growed, and doing well and hopefully sailing along happily with a full heart.
Anyway, I had put the other rider on Mags, who is the queen and is pretty sure everyone wants to dethrone her, so she's always looking for someone to behead. But this girl really took Mags firmly in hand, which she needs to function at her best, and I was proud of the girl because this is only her second ever horse she has been on in her life. She has only ever ridden Dewey. For the last 7 months. Both girls started as total beginners.
These girls have come a long way, in little bits, and more and more I am seeing them become the teachers, and me the student. Like this ride.
We come through the tunnel and I get my camera out to video them in case we get his historic first long canter with a rider. I'm in front, because I can set the pace and keep the shenanigans at a zero, which is the only number for shenanigans on horses.
Dewey does a perfect easy canter, Mags is following him gently, I'm trying to video and I can't really see Meriwether but HE IS DOING IT! He does a nice slow canter, just keeping up with the big horses, the girl on him is having the time of her life (she loves speed, we are opposites) and we get to the top of the hill with everyone on board, Meriwether with a brand new skill, a new faster gear and new rider, and this is one of the biggest hurdles ever.
The rest of the ride is pretty nice, just a regular walk through the woods and creek, then back into the haunted woods on a newer trail then back up through the hill to head home. Meriwether did perfectly, was his normal balky self at times (he likes to stop and pretend he can't remember how to go, hoping you get off and he can eat grass), but we all got back busting with success.
I had to hurry our ride because my mom's yearly social worker had just pulled up and I had to leave the girls to rinse the horses and feed the chickens and put the saddles away. This social worker lady is important, she works for IHSS which is the government agency that pays me to care for mom. This was the yearly evaluation to make sure she qualifies and get her all set for next year. I came in all sweaty literally gross like a melting salt popsicle with dripping hair, but she couldn't tell how soaked I was cause she was up to her balls in paperwork and she asked questions and looked at mom and organized her stack of stapled official papers and wrote down all the things I answered. Everything went smoothly. Then she said ok, that's good, here you can sign these do you have a pen
I looked at her because she was HOLDING A PEN right there. I was like um
yeah okay
So I went to the kitchen to get a pen, thinking wow she must really not like sharing her pen it must be a really great pen or maybe she's afraid of pen disease or do I look like I would not be able to cleanly handle her pen she did not look at all horrified by my sweaty horse situation during the whole interview, I don't know why she couldn't me HAND ME HER FUCKING PEN
Anyway I got MY OWN PEN it's a SHITTY PEN cause I couldn't find the good one and I signed about 300 places so my mom could get money and continue to sit in this chair for another year while I feed her burritos and ice cream. The lady left and I ran back out to help the girls finish putting the horses away and tidying up the barn and dismissing them for this Tuesday with some snacks and juice like it's preschool but they were so happy and they handed me my lesson money which I just stow for hay money later and I run back in to make sure mom has had some water and a bite of food and then I
LEAP into the pool to cool off, start my 100 laps to maintain my chiseled figure and as the water gives way forgivingly to my regular backstroke, I look at the sky and the trees and I contemplate
the pen
