Posted: Jun 16, 08 7:09am
What's the most exciting, fun, scenic, or otherwise wonderful ride you've ever had? It can be inside an arena or out; pure work or pure pleasure.
Here's one of mine:
Years ago I did a horsepacking trip in the John Marshall Wilderness area in Montana. Several friends and I rode for a week through some of the most varied and spectacular (mountainous) terrain in the US, although there were some spots that looked more like the face of the moon. It was so beautiful, it was surreal.
It was breathtaking, and it was also challenging. We were constantly on the watch for danger--bears, snakes, rock slides--and narrowly averted a few disasters. We had to have a watch at night for the horses. We carried all the "necessaries" in saddlebags and on two pack animals. We made camp at night, tended the horses, cooked over fires (nothing like campfire "grub" after a long day's ride), bathed in rivers, and slept out under the biggest, brightest sky I've ever seen.
Best of all, was the feeling of being one with your horse in a common purpose, which was simply to get from here to there in one piece. That's something it's easy to loose track of riding in the arena or on the course.
Throughout the trip, I rode point on Firestorm--a cocky, big-hearted, very whimsical Paint. He and I were responsible for one another, and to some degree, for the others in our party, and we could feel it. I felt like an explorer, charting new paths through the wilderness, and by Firestorm's attentive and responsive attitude, I think he did too. It was wonderful to be together 24/7, through easy times and hard. A true partnership. I cried when I had to leave him.
That's one of my most memorable rides. Tell us one of yours.
