Angela Awrine

One of my very favorite movies is “City Slickers.” It takes us through the analysis of the life of city dwellers as discovered out on the range. That movie really does have so many life lessons in it, big and small, and it came to mind as I found myself “enjoying” one of the summer mountain vacation staples — horseback riding.

First, some history: The very first time I went horseback riding was at summer camp when I was 8. I was assigned what, to this day, I’m pretty sure was a pony. Her name was Joy. When I made a face about my assigned “horse” — while the other girls were braving their seemingly portrait-worthy equines — the counselor did her very best to assure me that Joy was like all the others. I remember thinking, “No, Joy is about half the size of those horses and pretty darn ugly.”

Nevertheless, I prepared to embrace my Joy and hit the trail. After stepping on my foot as I readied her for the ride, Joy did her very best to keep up but we ended up losing sight of the group. After a stressful 15 minutes alone in the hill country — in what I was sure were the last 15 minutes of my short life — we accidentally found the group and all was good.

Next, 10 years later, a group of friends and I went to New Mexico to experience the mountains. Once again, horseback riding seemed like such a good idea. While I don’t remember my horse’s name on this go-‘round, I do remember it being something indicative of “a horse with a bad attitude who likely should not have been accepted into the horseback riding program where strangers will ride it.”

With these events burned forever into my mind, somehow I decided that going horseback riding this summer in Colorado was yet another good idea.

This time it was a large group of us and included Adam and Abby. Obviously I wanted the children to enjoy all that … er … horseback riding has to offer! Six family members signed up and were assigned a great wrangler. After a few questions, she selected each of our horses and off we went!

Once again, I found myself at the back of the group — I think because there were so many children on the ride, the theory being that I’m an adult who can handle any “horseback riding situations” that may develop.

Apparently our wrangler didn’t get the memo on my history. About 40 feet into the ride, “Pepper” decides to stop dead in her tracks. No amount of coaxing with my equestrian proficiency made her move. She apparently hadn’t had an afternoon snack as she proceeded to dine on grass around us as the group moved on.

The wrangler gently encouraged me to be more aggressive with the horse. I paused here as I don’t think ever in my life have I been told to “be more aggressive.”

Try as I might, the horse never understood that the human was the boss and the hour-long ride was, frankly, miserable, for both of us.

I really tried to look like I was having fun in those photos, but the truth of the matter is I didn’t look or feel like I was having summer vacation fun. However I was tangibly reminded of why I was doing this at all. I could hear Abby cackling with joy on her first riding experience and listened to Adam go from joy to fear to joy again.

As I struggled with that animal it occurred to me that I can officially place horseback riding as a “bottom 10” entry on the list of “Angela’s Skill Sets” and that’s OK. I’ll likely go again if only for the laughs my children will get at seeing mom quote Billy Crystal’s character with “Whose idea was this anyway?”