Another Horse Story

Okay, just to prove to you that I'm not above poking fun at myself, here's a picture of me on Tuffy. Tuffy was a unique pony. He had one brown eye and one blue eye and an attitude that I've rarely encountered in a horse. One summer I sweet-talked my way into the advanced riding class without ever having cantered, and Tuffy was assigned to teach me how to canter (at least he saw it that way!). I was instructed on how to give Tuffy the "canter" signal with my hands and legs, and I attempted to do just that. But Tuffy would not let me get away with giving that signal incorrectly in any way. His way of teaching me what was incorrect was to duck his head and let me roll off the front, onto the ground, every time I did it wrong! Notice that this was not a long fall, judging by the length of my legs in relation to his body. So it wasn't so much physical as psychological (but after 13 falls in one hour, yes, indeed, it did start to hurt!!!!). At any rate, every time I fell, Birdie Bell made me get back on and try again. And by the end of the hour, I knew how to give the canter signal correctly (one way) and how to give it incorrectly (at least 13 ways!). Tuffy was the best teacher I ever had!

How do you like my sexy glasses and classic 60's flower child jeans?

And by the way, the rider on the other horse was a girl we called "Hoss." Her real name was Catherine Robbins, but she had a really husky voice, kind of like the character "Hoss Cartwright" on Bonanza, so everybody just called her "Hoss." I don't remember her horse's name.