Patti rode Buddy, and sat a pretty impressive crowhop.  What a little cowgirl. 

We loped!  (Although we're trotting in the picture...pretend.)  It was amazing.  Lance has a beautiful lope.  Er, excuse me, canter.  I forgot we're talking English.  We also worked on his sidepass, which he used to be able to do well.  He needs some work on that.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going riding at a friend's house.  They have recently gotten three horses--a sorrel mare named Misty, a gray Arabian (pictured) named Showngra, and a drop-dead gorgeous palomino mare.  Since they'll be moving in a few weeks, we decided that we needed to get together to ride. 

(A bit of background for this story is that, a short time ago, my friends sold their sheep to their neighbor next door.  They managed to herd all of them over, except for one stubborn one...)

I took Showngra, and Sheryl took Misty.  We walked and trotted the horses around the pasture a few times, and then I ventured to lope Showngra, which was lovely.  After this, Sheryl's mother suggested that we try to herd the one lone sheep over to the neighbor's yard.  Naturally, us two aspiring cowgirls siezed the opportunity! 

We spent the next hour creating a new sport: a combination of cutting, team roping, and speed events.  It was incredibly fun, to say the least.  Showngra and I ran around that pasture as if we actually knew what we were doing, and Sheryl and Misty weren't half bad either!  In the end it took the neighbor's help, as well as three of my sisters and one of Sheryl's, to get the wayward sheep back in the pasture. 

The horses were worn out, and so were we....but I'd never had so much fun on horseback in my life!

A slideshow of the evening (somehow or other some of the letters in the credits got cut off...):

Sunday morning dawned bright and early.  Much too early.  I got up shortly after eight in time to get to worship practice at nine, and we all arrived home from church around twelve thirty.  Daddy then asked if we would like to take Danielle horseback riding, which we all (excepting Danielle, perhaps) agreed would be quite fun.

Now, you must understand that Danielle is a born and bred city slicker--much like we were up until a few years ago--not to mention the fact that she claims she is scared of horses.  Normally I would sympathize with this, but when you know a person your whole life you tend to overlook such things.  So I assured her all would be well, and Buddy really is a nice horse once you get to know him.  With that we set off.

After saddling the horses, I decided to take Buddy for a quick spin to see how he was behaving.  Surprisingly there was no heading for the barn, no crowhopping, and he even picked up a nice trot when I asked him.  This is quite an achievement, so I informed Danielle that she would do just fine.

Unfortunately, Buddy's good manners were not to last.  Danielle mounted up, and immediately upon being asked to move forward the old horse began his usual crowhopping.  After he had returned to his favorite speed (which is "stopped immovably"), poor Danielle climbed down and declared that her cowgirl days were officially ended.

Undaunted, I decided that it was now time to take the horses out on the big open thirty-four acres.  Danielle and Toni elected to take turns leading one another, since neither were very keen on the idea of riding double atop a crowhopping old Quarter horse.  With everything arranged, we left the arena and entered the wild, untamed hill country. 

For some time all went well.  We were a ways off from the house and the arena, following the fenceline through the property.  We passed by a few cows in the pasture, calmly munching away.  Danielle asked if this was normal, to which I replied that they were cows.  What in the world would a cow have to do with us?

Shortly after we passed them, the cows became very vocal in their usual mooing.  I looked back and saw that a few of them wer plodding after us.  How strange, I thought.  I've never seen a cow move quite that fast...

It is then that we learned how fast a cow truly can move.  The small group of heifers (Danielle declares that there was a bull) picked up speed until they were in a full gallop (as far as cows go).  This would have been fine, had they been headed any other direction.

My first though was: Oh, dear.  They're going to scare the horses.  It was followed by: Hm, I wonder what Danielle thinks of this?

After quickly dismounting to avoid any unpleasant situations, I turned around to check up on Toni, Danielle, and Katy (who had tagged along).  Toni was standing at Buddy's head, hanging onto his neck for dear life.  Danielle had grabbed Katy's hand and made for the nearest tree, leaving a trail of smoke behind her.  She looked to be in the act of climbing the sickly little thing, while Katy pretended to hide behind its four-inch trunk. 

Meanwhile the cows lumbered past us at a great rate, mooing their heads off.  When the fearsome creatures had passed us, I ventured to suggest that Danielle unwrap herself from the tree.

The rest of our trail ride passed comfortably.  I found an open area and loped Lance (my favorite horse ever) around it as the sun disappeared behind the trees....there is something truly incredible about being on horseback at a time like that.  But before I wax poetic, I shall bring this tale to a close.

We arrived home in safety, and no one talked much about the cows until after most of the family had gone to bed.  Then, as we all sat around the living room, the subject of Danielle's tree climbing was raised.

We spent the rest of the evening in hysteric laughter.