Riding Horses

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It didn’t take too long to jar another memory loose from that old brain of mine. Our family has always enjoyed riding horses, so I thought I would review a little of our riding History. I thank those of you that provided the kind comments on the blog.

 

 

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Riding Horses

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I heard a lot of stories about the wrangling days of my wife Pam’s Dad. He told us that riding horses came natural to him, but that it was not fun for him because he wrangled cattle for a living back in the 1930’s for a while. Perhaps, his natural ability in the saddle was inherited by my wife Pam and our daughters.

 

.Pam’s Dad Bill who we called PoPo sitting on a fine steed  in the 1930’s.

 

 

On my side of the family, my Mom started my sister JerrylDine and I riding at a very young age in 1944.  When we were one and two years old, we both rode our horses bare back. We actually were very good riders.

 

 

My sister JerrylDine and I riding our horses out in the country  bareback. What talent.

 

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Sometime later in 1947 when we were about four and five, Mom dressed us like The Red Ryder and Annie Oakley and we rode the range on a horse named boots. We rode that poor horse until he was all lathered up and ready to drop. What fun we had.

 

That’s The Red Ryder (me) and Annie Oakley ( JerrylDine) riding Boots.

 

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When our daughters Tamara and Kristi were 8 months and almost 2 1/2 years old in 1977, we introduced them to horse back riding on one of our summer trips to South Fork Colorado. They loved it so much that we had to take them horse back riding at least one time every year we went back to South Fork for the next 15 years.

That’s Tamara in front and Kristi in back on their first trail ride in South Fork with Johnny Longrider.

 

 

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Of all the times we took them riding, I only went with them twice. One was an all day trail ride at Fun Valley which numbed my butt for a couple of days. (See Fun Valley blog). The other was quite an experience. When we rented the horses, the guy told men that I was a big man so he was going to give me a big feisty horse. I thought “Oh Crap” but I got on him anyway. He told me that the horse would try to break loose and come back to the stables every chance he got so you will have to be firm with him. I said OK. So we headed up the mountain trail and I had to fight that horse all the way up the mountain.  We were walking along the trail when all the sudden he jumps off the trail and heads straight down the side of the mountain on what looked like about a 45 degree angle. He wasn’t walking or running but taking long hops like a bull frog might. I was holding on for dear life trying to duck tree branches while I bounced clear off the saddle on each hop. Somehow I managed to stay on him all the way to the bottom, but I had a knot on my head from a tree branch and my balls were all bruised up. He stopped at the bottom and I got off and just stood there in shock until one of the guys leading the ride caught up with me. I handed the guy the reins and told him I was walking the rest of the way back. The girls never had any trouble with the horses, so I guess they had that natural ability ,like Pam’s Dad. That was my last time to ride a horse.

 

 

 

 

Here’s Pam looking like a pro in her red riding pants.

 

 

 

Here’s Kristi looking like she was born in the saddle.

 

 

Here’s Tamara looking like a natural born wrangler.

 

 

 

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Thanks for reading Riding Horses,
Bill