Lots of kids raised with horses, not necessarily by the book but instinctive. Jockeys and exercise riders and polo trainers and ranch kids all have it (this doesn’t include me, I started too late.) Horses are interesting, very different from the dogs and cats we’re more used to, fellow omnivores and both predator and prey. Horses are just prey, and vegetarian, so they think completely alien about things. Very different to take a walk with a horse than a dog or cat. They notice different things, are frightened by different triggers, are focused on food continuously more than animal eaters are, interact very differently with us.

Pasos are great, very famous in horse literature in distance and endurance and heroic rides tales. They’re smart, Arabian blood, survivors, got a pony quality to them (ponies are very smart.) The people’s variety, as opposed to the cream of the crop rich folks types, remind me of the Mongolian horses, very tough little guys. I envy your opportunity, sounded fun. These are my current favorite kind of horse. Except some ponies, Arabians, Shires…
http://www.vannercentral.com/Mark%20Barrett%20Gallery.htm

Speaking of walking in the dark, you were the one who first gave me a love of night walks. It was revelatory to me. This was developed a few years later at the nature camp where we would take the kids through the woods at night with eyes closed and holding hands, using only our feet to feel the path. It was around this time I began to notice that those who had watched horror flicks would get freaked out. To this day I refuse to watch scary films – I don’t want those images haunting my pleasant night walks and making me afraid of nature.

Good info about riding bareback. It makes sense, seems like a good way to learn how to ride. Now I want to try it! This being Peru, they have Paso horses around here – the ones whose feet go out sideways (?) instead of up and down, making for a much smoother ride. Speaking of children and horses, Gavin (my cowboy friend in Vilcabamba) tells the story of how just after getting his teeth kicked out by one horse and being kicked in the balls by another, his 2-year old climbed up the tail of the same horse, hand over hand until she was seated – and the horse was tranquil as could be.

My skill list is goofy to the point of pathology, but yes, I can ride a horse. Bareback is comfortable even for boys and their boys, you ride more slouched, back on your butt, and you don’t whap up and down as you do on a saddle so you’re not bangin’ yer boys. ‘Proper’ riding is done with most of your support, balance and control gotten from your thighs and knees, and that closeness is enhanced bareback, a very natural way of riding that leads to good habits later. Put a helmet on a kid, no saddle, and let him loose and he’ll be safer than with a saddle, just slides off and no getting your foot caught in a stirrup or leather which is how many accidents happen. You can’t go fast bareback until you’re good enough to go fast mostly. And basically it’s fun, you feel very elemental and totally cool. My lottery fantasies always include horses. Hard to get ‘em on the boat, but worth it…

You are such a cowboy.

Did you buy some chaps?

seriously, this sounds and looking amazing / terrifying.

Miss you much,
Marissie