My second
horseback ride went a little better. Well, a lot better actually. My uncle
Ed's family had a cabin in the woods somewhere along Penns Creek and a couple times we
went there to spend the weekend. Like my pap's trailer, the idea of spending time in
the woods, again without a TV or stereo seemed like a weekend from hell. I remember I
wasn't going to go along for this sleepover until my aunt assured me that they had a
record player. I took my box of records and to the woods we went. But as soon as we got in
the cabin's front door, I quickly went from room to room looking for the phonograph but
didn't find one, swell, what a great weekend this was turning out to be. And are you ready
for this, we had to walk down a little trail to use the outhouse - an hey, watch out for
the snakes and bears. (We actually came across a black bear one night while out spotting
for deer.) Like I said, I was a town kid, not a country kid. Sometime during
that weekend cabin adventure, a cowboy came riding by on a big light colored horse. It
would throw kids off when they tried to ride him, but for some reason this man could
control him pretty good and was trying to fix the problem. So, when he came to our
cabin, me along with several other kids that were staying at nearby cabins got to go for a
ride. This, my second, horseback ride was also quite memorable for a couple
reasons. For one, the horse didn't even have a saddle, I don't even remember a
blanket, this big man held the horses reins while my uncle helped us on the horse, there
were 3 or 4 of us sitting front to back, each with our arms around the person in front,
and I was at the very front holding onto the horse's mane. Then we just went for a
nice little ride down this old dirt road to a little creek, turned around and came
back. To this day I would love to try my hands at bareback riding again. I've
since talked to several Amish and Mennonites who said they used to ride horses that way,
just climb on and go, no saddle or anything. With a bunch of us little kids all
piled on one horse and someone else holding onto the reins, it was fun, but to be able to
ride like the wind with nothing between you and your horse must be a wonderful feeling of
freedom..