Last Dance

Everyone needs joy in their life. I've always disliked the word 'joy'; some of you will know why that is so, and if you don't, it is not that important anyway, but lately I've decided to make a concerted effort to enjoy life more. As Oprah used to say, 'remember your spirit'.

My best bud Ava (Shout-out and wave to Ava!), knowing that I'd soon be returning to the workforce and thereby leaving the way of life I've grown accustomed to for the past year, invited me to join her and my other friend Melissa for a horseback ride on local wooded trails. While I've gone riding with Ava in the past, I'm still very much a novice rider. I've been on horses since I was a kid, but not with enough frequency to become a good rider, and certainly not with anyone who was willing to teach me the way Ava and Melissa do. They've both been riding continuously since they were kids, so usually they take the boys on more complicated rides, rides not suitable for someone like me. So today was a real treat for me, and I learned a lot, both by doing and by watching. That's me on Dallas, Melissa on Spike, and Ava on Joe, left to right in the picture. Skyguy took the picture, and I guess he did not realize that my eyes were closed-not the best picture of me in many ways. Oh well, I guess it happens to everyone eventually, right? You know, Dallas just isn't as pretty with me on him. He deserves his own space, so I post my favorite picture of him as well.

The first thing I should say that I learned is that it is a much more comfortable ride, and an easier ride, if the stirrups are adjusted properly. You may be able to tell by looking at the picture and comparing my leg posture with theirs that my stirrups are a bit too high. We later lowered the stirrups and voila, bliss! When I first saw the picture, looking at myself and my friends, I couldn't help but hear the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other" in my head. LOL! It is just too funny. You gotta laugh at yourself on days like this. At any rate, we rode for several hours, mostly walking through the woods and pastures. It was wonderful, and while it is not quite Fall yet, it wasn't hot like you would expect on a late Summer day. If I had enough money, I think I would definitely want a horse. You can totally forget about the world when you are riding. You can hear and see things that you would not normally notice. Perhaps it is just me, but I think I enter a state of heightened awareness. I notice what the horse is doing, what other horses are doing, what trees or holes or barbed wire or spider webs are ahead of me. Of course, I try to be aware of how I am holding the reins, how I am sitting in the saddle, whether or not I am leaning too much, and I try to make sure my feet are where they are supposed to me. I wish I could say that it all just comes natural to me, but I just don't ride enough to get to a point where I don't think about such things and just naturally progress from one position to the next as the terrain or conditions warrant.

Will I be sore tomorrow after four hours on a horse today? I'm sure I will, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm rather used to those kind of aches. Today, I felt my shoulders and neck and biceps after pulling muscadines and catbriar vines out of the trees yesterday. We are in the middle of cutting and stacking wood for the winter, and while we were back there getting standing dead wood, we decided to clean up a small section of woods. So today, when Dallas would trot, I could feel it in my shoulders and neck. Tomorrow will be no different, except that the location of the ache will be a bit lower. It will remind me of how much fun I had. At least right now I stay active enough to constantly be feeling my muscles and joints. I wonder how that will change after a few months on my new, sedentary job.