Why Ride Horses?

It’s somewhat beyond explanation.

The process begins with pulling your horse from the corral, brushing it down, and quietly cursing to yourself after being stepped on while cleaning the horse’s feet. Checking the saddle blanket for stickers and then digging the burrs from your fingers with a jackknife. Hefting the saddle on the blanket and cinching it down, then cinching it down again on the horse realizes holding its breath is futile. Next comes the experience of the horse’s last act of defiance while trying to place the bit in the horse’s mouth. After placing one’s foot in the stirrup (perhaps by using some help from your hands), then grabbing the mane and saddle one pushes from the ground with a silent prayer that the training remains successful and the horse doesn’t start to run off. Suddenly, one’s perspective of the world is changed.

A Change of Perspective

Instead of being mere man, now one is a man-horse unit. Suddenly 10 foot tall, common things now appear smaller. With a flick of the wrist, and gentle squeeze of the legs the new unit can run many times faster and gracefully move side to side with gentle pressure from one leg. This new power enables one to cross much further distances before tiring, experiencing new things along the way. The relationship between the power of the horse and the intelligence of the rider enables both to accomplish things neither one could accomplish alone. At the day’s end, the rider dismounts, unable to un-bow his legs and walk erect for a few steps. Despite the missteps, the miscues, the chaffing, and the bruises, somehow it was worth it.

So ridin’ is about many things: the freedom, adventure, the power, being closer to nature, the scenery, getting the job done, or just passing time with a good friend. Ridin’ is good for one’s perspective and soul. At thatscowboylogic.com we will share rides both future and past. As Ronald Reagan often said (paraphrasing Winston Churchill) , “there ain’t nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”…that’s cowboy logic.