We finally made it out to visit my mom's three-year-old horse, Xena, last weekend. I find it possibly a missed name opportunity when she has a distinct mark of Africa on her forehead, but I digress. My mom and her friend, Sandy, have been training their horses for months now. Xena's friends' name is Sunny. Mitchell and I just finally made it out to the stables, which are a bit of a drive from Eugene. I was completely surprised by Mitchell's skill with the horses - he knew how to pick out Sunny's hoof, put the equipment on, etc. This hearkens back to his youth and days of English riding classes (thanks Alice). I, on the other hand, have grown a complete fear of those huge animals. I didn't even want to hold the reins. To be fair - I had heard some stories of intentional foot-stomping by Xena...
So why, you ask, do we not have any photos of actual horse riding? Well, it seems it had been awhile since anyone had saddled the two youngsters, and the instant Mitchell tried to mount Sunny, she took off like a shot! We're talking full on bucking bronco style. Mitch didn't even get his right foot into the stirrup before bailing onto his back and knocking the wind out of himself. Sunny continued bucking like a true rodeo queen. And my blasted iPhone was not out and would not have been able to capture the speed, anyway. Where was the HandyCam??
Despite the initial horrific image of us all rushing to the Emergency room, all was well in the end. Relatively speaking. It was also very exciting and we learned a lot. Like, when a horse hasn't been saddled in a while, you must run them around the ring for a while, first. Ahh, the adventure of it all.
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