I left Dayton July 12, and arrived early July 13 in Wytheville. The bus
from Wythevill to Roanoke (my final destination) was full. I called my
father. He drove the 2 hours to come get me in Wytheville so that I
didn't have to wait several more hours.
I went to his house, dumped all my luggage into the guest room, and
took a nap. This nap led to me losing a day all week. (When I woke
up I thought it was Fri, I was a day ahead... for a week. ha ha)
The next day, we went right to the farm. Dad was upset that the
farm doesn't run their business the way that he would run the
business. But yet, he won't go anywhere else to ride. I won't go
anywhere else.
After last year's fall, my father was insisting on a lesson before I
rode trail. He was being a bit overprotective in my mind. But
I agreed. Well, they didn't have a ring lesson until the afternoon.
So, I rode one horse on trail, then I rode another horse for the
ring lesson. When you include catching the horses, feeding the
horses, grooming, tacking, cleaning hooves, feeding treats, and
leading back to their assigned fields,that was a full day. I was
so sore, but even sorer the next day.
The fun part was that I got to ride bareback. Finally. I was in
heaven. I had a hellish obstacle course where I had to pick up
a helmet off of an orange cone, go to the next cone, put it on that
cone, take my hand off of it, pick it up, and repeat to all of the
cones. I was racing with another girl. I won. Barely.
Really, everyday was very similar to the day before it. We got
up, ate breakfast, packed the cooler, slathered in sunscreen,
and went to the farm.
The most empowering part of the riding lessons was learning
how to do an emergency dismount bareback, while your horse
is trotting. I was told how to do one, I was told to do one, I
balked a little bit... I was yelled at to , "Just trust yourself,
dammit!!!" And BAM! I did it. It's very acrobatic. The
trainer turned to my father and said, "She's getting brave
Bobby!"
Later on that week, I got to lead trail. While some part of that
strokes your pride... really it is a lesson in humility. Because
EVERYONE IS WATCHING YOU... and when you take 3 or 4
approaches to unlock a gate... It's quite difficult to line your
horse up, unlatch the gate, swing the gate open, and then
navigate around it before the other horses lose their patience.
My trail horse, Christina, was a handful. She wanted to go at
her own pace. She wanted to pick her own trail. For the
most part, I let her, but I kept having to turn her in circles
because she kept wanting to go, or... go faster. It's really
a lesson in calmness when your horse is prancing on a very
narrow trail in the mountains.... and you are turning her in
circles... where there doesn't seem any room to turn in
circles....
The one day that was different was the day we went south
to visit my Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, and Grandfather. I
love that land. My Grandmother's place has always been
special to me. I was in the creek just as soon as I could
possibly get away. it was sad to see my Grandmother be
a shell of her former self. Dad was right. She is truly ill.
My Grandfather is staying at my Great-Grandparents'
house. I frickin love that place. There is a creek that runs
through it. There is a spring that comes right out of the
mountainside. I finally got to see the rest of the property.
Being younger, I was not allowed to "Go up the hill". I
saw the splendor of my family's land and said to myself,
I must own this one day. That is my goal. No one else
in the family (that I know of) wants it. They'd rather sell
it and divide the measely amount of money that they'd
get. Sad. I resolved that if it was in my power in the
slightest way, I would own that property. That it would
stay in my family. I don't care how romantic it sounds,
I felt like Scarlett. This was my Tara.
My bus back was late, and I had a horrid layover.
Thankfully, in Columbus, Dusty took mercy upon me.
I would have had a 3 hour layover. But she picked
me up and took me to Chipotle, where I tortured her
with pictures.
I arrived back here in the anticlimatic mess that's going
on. Thankful that I had such a great vacation. I tried
my best to enjoy it as much as possible because I
know my vacations are going to be sparse over the next
five years.