Happy horses.

I love horses.  They scare me just a little bit, but I think they are such beautiful animals.

When I was growing up in California, I went to girls camp every year as a teen in the Tehachapi mountains.  I thought it was the best camp ever.  The cabins were three sided structures with cement floors and bunks, so it felt like you were outside "camping" but you also felt a little less vulnerable to the elements.

Camp Tehachapi had a mess hall with pretty good food, a camp store where we could buy treats after lunch and dinner, an enormous swimming pool where we had tons of water activities and races, a big structure (again, the word structure ... what else do you call cement floored areas with roofs and picnic tables?) where we did all sorts of crafts.  They had an archery area which I only actually remember going to one year though.  And what I do remember about that year was pulling back the bow, releasing it, and then having that doggone thing rip into my arm and cut into my skin!  I didn't like archery after that.

And then there was my horse incident.  Yes, they had horse back riding at camp Tehachapi as well.  I think it was one of my first years there, so I was probably about 12 or 13.  Our group went out with the guide ... we were in a single file line ... I was loving being on horseback ... and then, my horse got spooked.  That thing took off like nobody's business with me hanging on for dear life!!!!  It went off the beaten path and was running full speed ahead down a hill and right toward a tree.  The horse ducked its head under a big branch of the tree and thank heavens I thought to do the same thing or I would have been knocked off the back of that horse and who knows what would have happened!  I was absolutely scared out of my mind.

I was at the back of the line so no one saw my horse take off, but my screams got the attention of the guide and she finally did race to my rescue and calm the horse down.  I can't even remember now if I have ever been horseback riding since.  Not that that experience has scarred me for life or anything - I just have never gone out of my way to ride horses again.

But ... I live in Draper now.  Horses are all over town and I do have an appreciation for their majesty.  (That was a total sidetrack story to the point of this post.)

I sometimes feel sorry for them though.  When I pass by the same horses everyday and they are just standing there.  24/7, they just stand there.  It seems so boring.  Do you think horses care?  Like, are they thinking, Whatever owner!  Get me out of this coral and let's go for a walk.  This is so mundane and I'm sick of it.  I need to RUN!  I need some sugar cubes!  I need some attention here!  (If I see one laying down ...  forget about it! It makes me so nervous because I think that surely something must be wrong.) 

Well, the other morning I was on my way to work and passed a group of horses who were galavanting around their coral, chasing each other, and I got the BIGGEST kick of it.   By the time I pulled the car over to take a closer look, one of the horses was on the ground rolling around in the snow (something I had wanted to do about three times already that morning to ward off the discomfort of my hot flashes) ... and then he jaunted on over to his friends for some breakfast.  They all had their little coats on (it has been exceptionally cold the last several weeks) and it made me happy - 'cause these guys seemed like the spoiled horses in town.  I would like to think that if I had horses I would spoil them too.