This week, I got to spend a whole lot of time horseback riding, which I don’t normally get to do, since I don’t have a horse. I attended “Adult Horsemanship Camp” at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch. The experience was even more fun than I thought it would be. Of course, the ranch itself is beautiful, but the classes, the horses, and the food were great too.
I rode a ranch horse named Friday (who was given the name because she was born on Good Friday). After the first day of camp, I got home and collapsed on the couch because I was so sore I could barely move. I had a new appreciation for the fitness levels of cowboys in the Old West. Sitting on a horse for hours reminds you how little you use many muscles you sort of forgot you had.
I also have a mutant foot, so finding a saddle that doesn’t cause excruciating leg pain can be a challenge. The problem is that my right foot turns out, like half a duck. It isn’t a big deal except for riding where the leather of the stirrups causes my foot to tweak and send screaming pain up my leg to my knee. It took a few tries to find a saddle that worked.
The saddle I used actually had cloth stirrups, which maybe isn’t very traditional, but it kept my foot happy. Fortunately, by the second day, Friday seemed to get used to me and I didn’t feel as much like I was going to die of exhaustion when I got home. By Thursday, I, along with a couple other hardy campers, were begging to go on one last trail ride in the rain. (It was so much fun!)
Great instruction, great people, and great horses made for a really memorable week for me. Yeah, I’m still a little sore, but it was SO worth it 😉