THROWBACK THURSDAY

This page will contain our most "memorable" adventures, along with pictures, of our rides in the Arizona Desert.  Over the last year especially, we've experienced all kinds of adventures.  I've decided to include those memories here on Throwback Thursday because they're from 2013; this will enable me to keep 2014 adventures in chronological order.

December 17, 2013

......VERY stressful week........finally have a few minutes to catch up on last weekend's riding events. This is one event I'll never forget.

Sassy and I were over near Coon Bluff when an older gentleman started walking toward us. I slowed her down to a "dull roar" LOL. He smiled and asked why I slowed down. I replied I didn't want to frighten him. He was SO cute! He smiled and said, 'Young lady, you will never, ever show me a horse to be frightened of!'

He proudly told me that a couple days before Christmas, he turns 81. He said he STILL rides his horses, one of which is a quarter/cutting horse, and the other two are gaited. His wife is afraid he's going to get hurt and wishes he'd sell them. Also, the cutting horse teases his wife; every day when she goes outside to hang clothes on the line to dry, the horse sneaks up behind her and then snorts when he gets close enough to scare her. LOL This gentleman said it's only because "Warrior" knows she doesn't "like" him. (She likes horses, just has always been afraid of them.)

The man next took out his wallet and showed me pictures of his daughter and her GRANDdaughter! Smiling, but with tears in his eyes, he told me how Warrior had helped him teach all 4 of his kids to ride, taught 8 grandchildren to ride, and also taught 3 great-grandchildren to ride! I had no time to respond because next he said the horse is the biggest contradiction because Warrior is the biggest "baby" 'you'd ever want to meet.' LOL

Now 38 years old, this gentleman has owned Warrior since he was a colt! "Broke him myself," he told me.

The next thing he said was he has a gaited mare "just about the size" of Sassy, and that she's as "smooth as silk."

He wasn't with the horses that day because he and his wife were taking a walk in that day to enjoy nature. (He wasn't clear about where his wife was at that time, he just said she was going to meet up with him.)

With that he said he thanks God every day for the life he's been allowed to live, and then looked up at me with bigger tears in his eyes and said all his kids and grandchildren have grown and moved away. "One of 'em will come around once in awhile, but the wife and I don't get to see 'em very often."

He asked me if I have kids; I said yes and I also have a beautiful granddaughter. He told me the best thing a mom can do for her kids is tell them to live each moment and appreciate each day because life goes by way too fast. Before I could say a word, he walked away! I told him I enjoyed talking to him, wished him a happy birthday and a Merry Christmas, but he never did turn around.

It was almost as if someone had put a quarter in a wind-up doll, and the time had run out. ?? I smiled to myself thinking he was an interesting, kind man, and probably was a character in his younger days.

But then another thought hit me.....you've seen Christmas movies I'm sure where someone encounters an individual, only to find out later on, that individual was an ANGEL. Interestingly, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that "chance encounter" all week, and each time I do, I find myself smiling. I wouldn't have guessed that day how the encounter would "help" get me through a stressful time; I'm so very glad I "ran into" that gentleman!