I ride my on horse on endurance trails because they are long enough for me to journey from "yesterdays," (sad and happy) to "todays," sad and happy. On the trail, my horse, carrys me along, always moving forward, while I discover the things with which I haven't come to grips; the unreconciled wounds of my youth to the unchallenged fears of tomorrow.
I ride because my wife makes me. She knows what feeds me, what saves me from me, what softens my pillow at night.
I ride because she can't and I know, up close and personal, what a privilege health is. So why not do something with it?
I ride because over the hill, around the bend, across the river, down through the rocks is one more chance to see His majesty and know that I am loved and worthy of forgiveness.
God sent his equine angels to lift me and carry me closer to Him. While in His proximity, He feeds my soul, shores up my spirit and fills my emptiness.
And, when, coming down the mountain and viewing the rigs and the activity of ridecamp, I know that I can deal with anything "back in the real world," where, when I walk among the rest of the mere mortals, I can still hear the echo of a shod hooves moving through a rocky canyon, or I can hear the whispered conversations of riders moving cautiously under a canopy of pine which blocks out the moon, but allows the filtered starlight to calm me and let me know that I am never alone.
I ride to get to the end of the trail, which is always the start of a new one.
----Frank
AND, I like the people who ride, too. Y'all are my herd and, for the most part, I understand you. I can't say that about the rest of the world.
