Riding in the Vineyard

Time to do fun stuff together (especially with our horses) is a constantly moving target.  Between My Loving Spouse’s schedule, the weather, my flue and the boys being shod, little has worked out.  We signed up for the Cave B Winery Prize ride, My Loving Spouse took the day off.  We knew we’d enjoy it, have fun and who knows maybe even win a load of gravel!  We also planned (as in talked about it, but the weather and life did not co-operate) to ride the horses a few times so we’d (horses and me) all have our spring jitters out of us.  Yes, that did not happen, best laid plans etc.  We did make it to the winery determined to enjoy our day.

We rode to the first tasting stop.  Easily setting up this first shot without My Loving Spouse spilling his wine.

A gorgeous location set just above the gorge of the Columbia river.  A beautiful day to be out and nothing beats Washington for beautiful cloud formations.  We tried to stay away from the other 118 riders, as more horses just add jitters to horses that haven’t been out.  You are not supposed to let your horse know you are jittery, so I worked hard at telling myself I was calm…..trying to fool at least one of us.

The only thing that could have made this day better, is if our horses just wanted to plod along and be lazy.  As is often the case on a first outing horses are hyped up on the green grass they’ve been eating.  They act skittish, dance sideways and seem scared of their own shadow.  We had just reached the red wine tasting location and needed to turn into this cloud formation.

The black cloud got blacker and we were now nearer the gorge’s edge.  It looked like a thunder and lightening show at any moment.  The day before we’d had a thunder and lightening storm at school, while the first grader’s were out a recess.  A drenched horde of crying, scared 6 year old kids came running into the library.  6 year old children have a bigger brain than a horse.  I was not enthused to ride into a thunder storm on a large animal with a small brain, near a cliff, who was already not comfortable to be out riding.

At that moment we decided to turn toward our trailer.  Beau got worse, refusing to step over a water line and I had to toss out the only glass of wine I’d been able to sample so far, so I could keep both hands available for managing my hyped up horse.  (Although I did manage to make up for it later once I was back on solid ground.)

Half way back to the trailer, Beau was worse and we needed to return through a row of staked grape vines.  I got off my beast, took the reins in my hand and we walked back in, well, I walked back in, Beau danced sideways almost the whole time, while My Loving Spouse and Sundance rode to the trailer as the hail started to fly.

I made the right riding decision for me, as I said, “There is a very fine line between ‘pushing the envelope’ and ‘it all going to hell in a hand-bag’!”

We did have a nice day.  We do have plans to return to the gorge to ride again…just not with an additional 118 horses and after we’ve had some more time in the saddle and possibly without a hail storm.
Am I blessed? You better believe it!