ACTIVITIES: WWR
Went to the Wild West Ranch to volunteer today. It was actually not as difficult as I thought it would be. I mean, I’m used to sitting around on the computer all day or doing a puzzle or watching TV or something lazy and indoors as that. It was good to get out in that sun for a change.
I didn’t really do that much, but Tanya said I did enough to get a free lesson! I’m excited about that, for sure. I basically just helped get some horses ready to be ridden, mucked a few stalls, and filled the water tanks. Seriously, that’s all. But I was there all day, pretty much. It was cool. I’m excited to come back.
ACTIVITIES: Horses Used to Scare Me…
…but not anymore! At least not nearly as much. I don’t know why, but even though I love horses and they’re so beautiful and graceful, I used to be pretty nervous to be around them. I was afraid that they would bite me or something. Even though that doesn’t bother me nearly as much, I think it’s still on my mind.
But it only doesn’t scare me as much because I’m much more comfortable on a horse now. After my first lesson (if you can call it that), I was really quite comfortable on a horse. Not as comfortable as I need to be, but much more so than before.
I went down to the ranch today to volunteer. Well, I showed up a little too late. They usually need people by 8am and I wasn’t there until 10am. I didn’t really know that, but I wanted to go down there to see if I could help out anyway. Instead of really helping out at all, I instead paid for a lesson. $40 for an hour is okay with me as long as I don’t have to do it all the time, you know? I wish I could afford to do it weekly, but I don’t know if I can. I think I can trade lessons if I volunteer, but I don’t know how much I have to do that before I’ll actually get a lesson.
So anyway, I paid for the lesson today. I ended up getting on the horse right after the instructor, Tanya, had already left for lunch. But another girl, Karen, showed me how to brush her (Shawnee was her name, beautiful chocolate brown horse with a white face), pick her hooves, and get her saddled and cinched. Then she got me on the horse and kind of gave me a little bit of instruction on how to ride. Actually, quite a bit. I was jumping over small logs by the time Tanya got back from lunch.
As soon as she got back, we did a little twenty or thirty minute lesson. Not long. They’re usually an hour, but I had already been on Shawnee for about an hour. I probably got more than I actually paid for. I’m quite grateful. But she got back, and the most important thing that I think I learned was how to post. I was riding western, not English, but the concept was still the same.
After that, I was going to stick around to help, but when I was standing around waiting for Tanya to give me something to do, I got incredibly light-headed and nauseous. I thought for sure that I was going to pass out. Things started to go black. I bet that if I didn’t kneel down right then, I probably would have. Needless to say, I told Tanya that I was going home. I didn’t want to faint in front of everybody. I think I just got a little bit of heat stroke or something. I’m definitely not used to being out in the sun for that long. Yikes!
