Hi-ho silver -- away!

Yesterday, I went with the senior academy (all junior and senior girls) to White Pines Ranch in Oregon, IL. It was a kind of one-day retreat for the students to bond and spend time with each other and their teachers in a non-academic environment. One of the things we got to do was ride horses. I'm not a complete horse novice. Wes's parents had two horses at their house in Virginia. Wes even helped build the barn. He was a pretty decent rider, though his sister Horse Gal was the pro in the family, having broken and trained the younger of the two horses, Tater. The older of the horses, Sammi, died about two years ago and was buried on the property. Tater is being boarded at a farm near Virginia Tech, where Horse Gal is attending school. I did a little riding on Sammi (usually riding double with Wes), but never on Tater, who was the more cantakerous of the two. So I felt more experienced than my students but hardly a pro when I mounted Ranger, a black-and-gray speckled horse yesterday. I was warned that, much like the dearly-departed Sammi, Ranger liked to stop while trail riding to have a snack on any tasty grass nearby. In fact, one of the horses at the ranch had been cordoned off from the group because he had horse founder, meaning he ate so much grass that he made himself sick. The ride was very slow-moving, so all the girls felt safe, but it was nice nonetheless. It's fun being up on a horse. And I only had to stop him from snacking once.