Just Another Ride

Our daughter, GunDiva, had a couple of her friends come up to Allenspark to ride horses. TLB had never ridden, and his girlfriend had limited riding time, so GunDiva invited me along, probably to help if a problem came up.  Surprisingly poor planning on her part.  I tossed a sheepskin on Rangers back, tied both ends of the lead rope to his halter and away we went.

Things went well until we started a long, steep down-hill stretch.

"Bill, you are on the short horse, why don't you do a cinch check for everyone?"

No problem.   I jumped off, checked everyone's cinches and as they rode off, I jumped back on.  And right over the top of the short horse and onto the ground on the other side.

"$#!T"

Ranger stood over me, looking down curiously.

"Why are you down THERE, Beel?  That's not what you usually do."

Fortunately, the other riders and their cameras were well down the trail, so I put my hat back on and jumped (a little lower) and ended up on my horse.

Now, I'm not a great photographer.  In fact, I'm pretty poor at it.  But digital cameras are great as I can take a couple hundred pictures, and get a couple good ones, and trash the rest.

I had my camera in hand, late in the ride, and was reaching out at arms length to the side to take a shot.  As I stretched out my arm, I guess I pressed the battery door.  I felt it pop open. I lunged further out to keep a grip on the batteries and managed to LEAP sideways off of my horse.  I found myself looking up at Ranger... again.

"PEGASUS ON A POGO-STICK!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BEEL?"

"Look, Ranger.  I was trying to not drop the camera..."

"BEEL, I WAS JUST WALKING!"

"Yeah, but see, I lunged for the camera..."

BEEL, THE FIRST TIME I WAS JUST STANDING THERE!"

Damn.  This time I think GunDiva may have gotten a picture.

Bill