Emi
1/19/05

The Slippery Saddle

The rain drummed the roof and made a sound like hail. I was inside a barn with my friends, riding horses. As the rain hit, my horse lurched forward, and I grabbed his mane just as my foot slipped out of the stirrup. The reins burned my fingers as I pulled back with all my strength. "Do you guys want to ride outside?" Jennifer, our instructor, asked.

" In the rain?" I objected.

"It's way better than riding in here," my friend Andie added.

I didn't really want to go outside on a horse in the rain, but I felt strange saying it because everybody else seemed to like that idea. " I guess," I lied.

I turned around in my saddle as a loud bang echoed around the barn. Katherine was desperately trying to steer Amber away from a large silver garbage can, the grain bin, that she was nosing around in. Jennifer took Amber's reins and led her and Katherine out to the arena. I slipped my feet out of the stirrups and swung my leg over Elvis's back. As my heels hit the boot heels on the ground, pain shot through my ankles. Elvis was a tall horse!

I felt the lead rope rubbing against my hand as I led Elvis outside and up the hill to the arena. As we started to go up the hill, Elvis picked up speed, and I was running to keep up. I could feel the mud and sand as it squished under my feet, and raindrops hit my head. The smell of horse was strong in my nose, and when we finally got to the arena, it was raining hard. Kelley was the first one to mount. She put her left foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over Max's back. As she got on, her saddle slipped. Max got scared and took off cantering. Her saddle was on Max's side now, and Kelley was grabbing at Max's blonde mane, but as her saddle slipped she fell off with it.

I had never seen anyone fall off a horse before, and it was kind of funny. I wanted to laugh, but I didn't want to hurt Kelley's feelings. Instead I asked," Kelly are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered. My boot heel made a deep imprint in the wet sand as I turned around and saw Max cantering towards Elvis and me. His saddle fell off, but he kept running. I hadn't met Elvis until this morning, so I wasn't quite what his reaction would be.

My clothes were drenched and sticking to me. Gel was running out of my hair and down my face. I was freezing cold, and my teeth chattered uncontrollably. Surprisingly, as soon as Max got to us, he stopped, Kelley grabbed him, and Jennifer picked up his saddle. " I think we should go back to riding inside but that's just my opinion," I said. Everyone agreed, and we rode inside for the rest of the week.