This weekend, for the first time in years I went out to the country and went for a ride. I grew up riding horses, but when I finished high school and started university I had just moved out into my first apartment and I was so busy that riding faded out of my life. I started riding because I spent my early childhood living on a farm in the country where we had our horses. While I was growing up I spent most of my time climbing the huge stacks of hay bales, making forts in the woods, making friends with barn cats, feeding carrots to big, sweet horses, and dusting dirt off my boots. Something about that means I cant see a horse without wanting to go over and make its acquaintance.

While our city is surrounded by big prairie skies barns, I havent been on a horse for at least five years, and I stopped my weekly riding lessons some years before that. This weekend my Dad I drove out to visit his ponies, and to see if I still remembered how to stay on :)

They were all so sweet!! In the winter a horses coat get big shaggy, and tiny icicles form on their whiskers. I even got to play with a foal (code for a baby horse whos a boy) who was so fascinated by me that I couldnt get photos of him because his nose was almost never 3-4 inches away from my face! The tiny little horse would play with my hair hands before going to his mom to nurse, and then coming back to nuzzle my glasses and smell my lip chap. One of his buddies even opened my messenger bag up enough to start sucking on the opening flap, until I noticed and offered ear scratches in exchange for my bag back in one piece.

It was so cute that I almost needed to be sedated.

I rode a horse, who was very attentive patience, and also somewhat unfortunately named Stumpy. Hes a very attentive gentleman who is very aware of his rider, and was definitely aware that I hadnt been riding in a very long time. He seemed a little concerned about me and would flick his ears back like he was thinking …Are you sure you want to go faster? Your legs arent in the exact right position and you seem to be thinking an awful lot… but we had a really great time.

It was a lot of fun and more of a work out than I remembered! On Sunday morning my legs hurt like crazy, but I had so much fun that I think Ill do it again soon. Im an expert on handing out carrots and giving pats, after all.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHPBZqg8-iE[/youtube]

Just because I cant resist, heres a Monday morning song called Horse Riding by Euros Childs. Its a little known, really fun song that I think youll enjoy. How was your weekend? :)