Every day, on my drive in to work, I pass by an equestrian center.  There’s usually a horse or two outside.  One day a horse was running around crazy and bucking.  That was cool.  Another day, one of the horses just laid down and had a nice roll in the mud.

Anyway, seeing horses every day on my drive reminds me of growing up in the middle of nowhere.  Our neighbors had horses.  One of my childhood friends had a couple of horses.  I always wanted a horse, but I settled for riding other people’s horses a couple of times.  Horses both scare me and make me smile.  Scare:  they bite and kick.  I once saw a girl who had gotten stepped on by her horse.  Not pretty.  Ginormous bruise.  HUGE.  Smile: they are beautiful and they can run fast.

When I was in college I worked one summer at a YMCA camp.  They had horses.  I never got to ride because I spent my free time on the water, but one time I spent several hours with the horses.  My friend that took care of them told me he was going to set me up with the “Cadillac” of horses.  Apparently that means slow, fat and constantly stopping to eat.  I did not appreciate the Caddy so I asked for a more spirited horse on the next ride.  All was going well, until we hit the clearing, wide open space.  Feeling quite the proficient rider, I pulled away from the line to give the horse a good run.  What followed was this amazing moment of wind on my face and in my hair as we galloped across an open field.

That lasted all of ten seconds because suddenly I realized that I was in trouble.  The horse was heading straight for a tree and if I didn’t get smacked by a giant limb, I would surely get tossed off the horse as soon as he came to a complete stop right in front of the fence.  WHOA Horsie.  WHOA.  Seriously. STOP!  That was close.

Scary and exhilarating.  I miss that sometimes and I’m reminded of that every time I read thepioneerwoman.com and drive into work.

Tonight I rolled down the window so I could feel a little wind on my face and in my hair.  The Kia is not exactly a horse but I can pretend.