It was a beautiful cloudless day at the lesson farm where we volunteered at. The beeping of a machine was amidst the noise of the nature as they planted tiny pine trees in the paddock. Me and my sister, Christena*, had just finished mucking out stalls, filling water buckets, leading horses around, and now we were in the indoor arena.

The horse farm owned 6 horses at the time but there’s only one that you really need to know about: Spirirt. Spirit is a grade (they don’t know what breed he is) palomino gelding. In my personal belief, he’s some kind of draft mixed with an Appaloosa with some other stuff mixed in but no one knows for sure. In actuality, he’s too light to be a palomino, he’s almost white! And he could’ve fooled you if he could keep himself clean. He tosses his head into his leader’s body at times and it hurts. He’s also a swayback so he has a really grotesque appearance to most students and is ridiculed so me and Christena feel sorry for him…when he isn’t head-tossing us.

So, me and my sister were in the indoor on the blue-ish picnic table and Spirit and Dixie were lounging and Mrs. Arianna (the riding instructor) came to us and asked, “Would you like to ride Spirit bareback?”

“Sure!” we both immediately said

It took us a minute to find helmets but when we got out, my heart was pounding for joy. Riding bareback! It was what I had always dreamed of. Christena had said a few times already that she had “legs of steel and abs of iron.” She proved it that Tuesday morning. She was first to hop onto Spirit. If you’ve gone to a rodeo then you have probably seen the bucking broncos or bull riders. Spirit is really tall and an old-timer.

“Remember to hold onto the mane,” Mrs. Arianna reminded.

As soon as she got on, he gave a little hop and I thought that Spirit was breaking into a trot… And then he bounced again…and again! He was crowhopping! Crowhopping is like a buck but more of an arching of the back while leaping into the air. Christena said that she felt like she could’ve done it all day after it was over. But it wasn’t over yet! Christena was sliding near his rump. One of her hands went to Spirit’s rump and she slid off. She nearly landed on her feet but tumbled onto her side but she avoided injury.

“Are you OK?” me and Mrs. Arianna both asked.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” Christena said, getting up. “I have legs of steel and abs of iron!”

I smiled as we went to sit again. She’s better, I smiled.

The next Thursday, Mrs. Arianna said, “When I took Spirit back out to the paddock, he spooked at the pine trees. I think that’s what made him buck.”

Christena got bucked off, but because she was strong, she was OK. Spirit got spooked but once he was introduced to the trees he was fine. It’s like that old saying, “You fall of your horse, you get right back on.” The Christian version? “Something doesn’t go right in your life and you fall out with God, get right back in!”

*Names have been changed