My Inner Cowgirl

Apr 12

Written By Alysa

I cannot tell a lie.

Not a big fan of manure.
None of us should ever have to
a) see it
or
b) smell it.

Can we all agree on this?

However ...

I do love me a good horse.
As in,
they're one of my favorite
of God's creations.

They're majestic creatures.

Strong.

Beautiful.

Graceful.

So I'm officially, as of 4 days ago,
a BIG fan of barrel racing.

Exhilarating really,
especially when you can stand
20 feet from the barrel.
I mean.

Horses are SO powerful.

And speedy.

And their manes just flow in the wind.
And they gallop as if they were rescuing

a damsel in distress.
They are all things dreamy.

Lexi,

our very own personal
cowgirl family friend,
was racing Saturday night,
so we got our cowboy boots on,
saddled right up into our pick up truck,
turned on the Country AND Western tunes,
and headed North to Clinton.

Alright, I lie.
I actually put on my flip flops,
because it was warm-ish,
and we got in Mum's
four-door sedan,
and we turned on the 'indie coffee house' station
on her satellite radio.
We did drive North.
I think.

Note to self:
One of these days I AM going
to own a pair of cowboy boots.
And they're not going to be a
practical colour like brown.
Or black.
I'm goin' the right shade of teal or pink.
Because I can!
Thank you very much.

Question for you.
Do you say cowgirl boots if you're a girl?
Or do you still call them cowboy boots, even if you're a girl?
And,
what do you say to a rider who's just about to race?
I know enough to not say
"Break a leg" when your favorite rider
is 'in the hole!'
But what DO you say?
"Ride your little heart out!"
"Don't tip over the barrel!"
Don't kick your horse too hard,
because that just seems so mean to me!"
"Don't forget your helmet!"
These are the things that flit through my mind.
SO.MANY.QUESTIONS.

Tangent aside,
Lexi is awesome and can
seriously RIDE like the wind.
She's brave
and talented
and if we lived in the same country,
I'd go watch every one of her races.
I'd be her biggest fan.
I'd even buy a shirt that says
Ride Like The Wind, Lexi!!!

Granted,
she might not want me at her races,
because, well,
I scream.
And I startle easily.
And there's not a darn-tootin' thing I can do about it.
The sounds come out of me
at the most inopportune times.

My inner cowgirl

just has to jump up and scream.

So I do.
Life's too short to be embarrassed, folks.
Seriously.

I may or may not have screamed
out loud
and
loud

when one lady fell off her horse.
She just FELL OFF HER HORSE.
And she lived to tell about it.

Good thing she was wearing a helmet.

(I might have yelled about that, too,

because, well, there were some riders

who chose not to wear a helmet.)

And perhaps,

I embarrassed my eldest born

by panicking when horses

were tipped so low to the ground

it seemed they were going to
topple over and crush their riders.

I'd say I'm just doing my job really well
if I'm embarrassing my eldest
at public events.
Payback for all those middle of the night
feedings when she was,
oh, you know,
from birth to one year old.

So we had a riot Saturday night.

We saw some cows.

And it seemed wrong to me
that they were all bunched up in this
small little pen,
waiting to be thrown to the ground.

But I'm not on the committee
so apparently,
my opinion doesn't count?!

I just snapped some pics
and told them they were all gonna be okay,
and just don't think about the space issues
or the chasing that was in their near future.
I told them to ride like the wind.
Just like Lexi.
I'm everybody's cheerleader.