Sande Elkins

Ok, this is another one that has nothing to do with photography, redbubble or art…although I do think Mouse is a work of art. :) But for those of you who know about my struggles with my fear of riding since an accident a year and half ago and how long it took me to ride any horse….well, Yahoo!! Major accomplishiment!!! I rode Mouse this morning and I wasn’t the least nervous and she was so well behaved. Brandy told me that it was a bit amazing for both of us to have made such progress in just six weeks and for me to ride her without any nerves. And she also said that we both looked great. She was perfect in my terribly biased opinion-ha. It was funny though, I felt like I was some sort of invalid when I started saddling her up. Jeff, Brandy’s husband comes rushing over saying, “You aren’t planning on riding her are you?! Wait until Brandy gets out here.” And then he stands there fussing over my saddle like I’d never put on a saddle and then the two girls, Savanah and Alexus who are there every day, come in and they start fussing. I knew that Brandy would undo it and redo it as soon as she got out anyway—she usually does that with everyone and this time I was able to tell her that I actually had nothing to do with it not being done to her satisfaction-ha. She laughed and she laughed when she heard how Jeff was going on. She said that he’d reacted the same way the day before because she let a lady ride the Paint who had arrived at the same time Mouse had and behaved the same way Mouse did at first, too. She said that he was just a worrier but she had faith in both the lady on the Paint and me with Mouse that we could handle the situation. It felt odd to be back on Mouse and not to have to constantly kick her like I have to do on the lesson horses but it felt so good,too. She’s such a good girl and it felt wonderful to ride her again:) To quote Rin and Stimpy, Happy, happy, joy, joy-ha!