In earlier stories of my youthful past, I have touched upon chapters spent in the company of my beloved horse, Little Man. We do have a storied history, and at times, these wonderful memories of our adventures together just pour over me.
I would like to recount a few of my horsewoman's adventures for you, and hope you find them as entertaining as I did, and still do, after all these years. Isn't it strange how a short-lived animal can so deeply touch a young girl's life to the degree that these memories remain among the best for an entire lifetime?
Once, my cousin, Alece and I were walking the pastures to fetch up our horses for an adventuresome ride. As we made our way to the ponies, I noticed that Little Man was not wearing his halter. I figured he'd snagged it on the "bob-wire" fence and just neatly slid it over his naughty head. Alece mounted her steed ( actually a pregnant brood-mare) and deftly guided her by using the halter straps. I, on the other hand, had nothing but a hunk of mane to grab a hold of.
Actually, I figured he would just follow the brood mare back to the barn. But noooo!!! As soon as I mounted Little Man's back, he took off at a sprint that would "beat the band." He showed no signs of slowing up as he approached a large, full of muddy water, rice canal. I'm wondering, will he slow up, will he stop on a dime and throw me over his head?
I was lying on his back, stretched out flat, my legs flapping in the air, and trying to reach Little Man's nose and attempt to stop him, but it was just out of my reach. We were nearly to the canal, and "Speed Racer" decides to "jump" a twenty-foot-wide river. Well, he made it halfway, and landed in the middle; he going one way, and I the other. Then cold water, dirty water and water in my boots. Before I could rub the muddy water out of my eyes, I could hear Alece, laughing like a hyena. I'd love to put some mud down her jeans.
By the time Little Man and I had crawled up the levee and out of the canal, Alece and I were both laughing and crying at the same time. There were certain parts of me that did ache quite a bit, which made the crying part pretty darn easy.
Well, we sloppily trotted back to the barn to get a rope, and then went back for that bad horse. It had been just a minor set-back, and we were not about to miss out on our "adventures" due to such a tiny mishap.
Now supposedly, Paw-Paw had always told us not to ride in "the woods." At least that's what Nanny had told us and she threatened to tell Paw-Paw every time she caught us "riding in the woods", which was every time we went riding. Where's the first place that we would head? The woods, of course.
That's where the big rice canal was, and all of the best action. I've never known why Nanny feared the woods so much; maybe stories of wolves or wild dogs, poisonous snakes or perhaps she feared us drowning in the rice canal. Obviously that could never happen!
Are you getting the impression that because of my "zest for life", that perhaps I may have been slightly more than troublesome to those responsible for my care and upbringing? This thirst for life and love of adventure still fuel my heart to this very day.
One day Alece and I went riding in "The Woods" and Nanny tracked us down. Caught in the act, we were. We started giggling because we knew that sweet little Nanny would never really tell Paw-Paw. She was standing in the road waving her arms wildly, stamping her feet and shouting, "You girls better get back to the house right now. I'm gonna tell Paw-Paw, and ya'll are gonna ketch a bad whippin', Yeah! Ya'll goin' to see... go ahead and laugh, you bad girls!"
And laugh, we did. Alece and I decided to have a race back to the barn. A quick slap of the reins and a kick to the ribs, and off we went! Riding ever faster, as we approached the angry figure of Nanny still standing in the middle of the road. Without so much as a word, Alece and I knew that we would each "pick a side" as we blew past Nanny, the force of our "wind" nearly spinning her completely around!
"Well, I'll be!", she shouted as she turned to make her way back home. She fixed a hank of tousled hair, and with as much dignity as she could muster, made her way back to the house, smiling and shaking her head as she went. I can still hear her saying, "Those two are gonna be the death of me yet" and laughing.
Alece and I giggled to ourselves as we rubbed and curried our horses, thinking to ourselves that this will be a great memory for us. Even maybe forty-five or so years down the road of life; we'll call it "Pedestrian Versus Equestrian."
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