The Natural High

Sometime back in January I had a rare opportunity to ride Fancy alone. I love riding Fancy in different situations as she behaves differently. If there are a bunch of horses and she is in the lead, she becomes responsible and even with spurs she can be hard to even get into a trot. Of course, there are a couple areas where she can go into a full gallop and in those situations there is no hesitation. If there are but a couple horses tagging along, she is more apt to do a more spirited ride.

The most fun, is when it is just the two of us alone. It takes very little prodding (no spurs) to get her going however I want her to go. I need to state as well, that when I have determined it is time to slow down she will respond quickly and do as I ask.

On this January day my wife had a sewing customer to meet on a Friday afternoon, so I headed to the barn by myself. There are some young girls who apparently leave think I am their leader as I can lead some fun rides. However, on this day, my goal was to get Fancy tacked and ready to go and get the Hell out of Dodge before anyone had a chance to slow me down. I barely made! I was also on a mission as my barn had just moved to a new location and I am mapping (GPSing) all the trails and the main trail had yet to be mapped. Since it was a longer trail and daylight is a precious thing this time of year, we were on a mission!

The ride was the most spirited Fancy and I had ever done. At our old barn, there was only so much you could do on 30 acres. Now we had 450 acres with long areas suited for cantering and galloping. Plenty of room for Fancy to exercise the Foundation Quarter Horse in her that her daddy gave to her. There is a part of the main trail called Paul's Hill because it is the perfect place for Fancy and Paul to take off. I need to measure the distance of this area to see if it is a quarter mile as when we get to the end she is quite willing to slow it down.

When the ride was over, I was high, just from the thrill of the ride. This feeling lasted pretty much through the weekend as I kept reliving just how great it was. Through any issues that my wife have in life, and there are always issues in living your life, we have always found that a visit with the horses takes the edge off. Some of my greatest thinking comes on the back of Fancy!

If life is stressing you out, you need to spend more time with your horse. I love any ride I go on whether it is just my wife and I or there are 10 horses following me. But there will also be something special with just Fancy and I taking off by ourselves into the woods. It is rare, but I cherish it those rare times when they occur. Perhaps it isn't the wisest thing to do, taking off by yourself on a horse, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. You only live once and we may as well enjoy as much of as possible.