We step out of the car into the heat of the sun. We made our way to the stable where a woman was sitting at a picnic table. She wore blue jeans and a straw hat. She had a t-shirt. My mom tells her that they had scheduled a horse ride for the afternoon. My mom and Shane’s mom handed over the money that we needed to give them. Shane’s family and mine had been family friends for a while. My sister and his hung out every once in a while. I hung out with Shane and our moms were friends. When they came to our house, Conner, his brother, watched sports with my dad.

My sister and Isabell had decided to come here. It was somewhere in the country far from our house. I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The sky had been completely light blue without a cloud in sight.
Off in the distance stood a dozen tall, brown, horses. We walk over to them with the guide leading us.


“Who wants to get on first?” the instructor asked.

“Me!” shouted my sister and her friend, Isabell.
“Okay come this way,” she stated as she led Isabell to a horse. Isabell got on one of the big horses and a man lead her away to where we would be leaving. All of the other children had gotten on before me. The lady chose me to get on a horse now and I nervously waddled to the horse. I’ve always been worried when I ride them. When I was at camp one year, one got loose as I was riding one and they got spooked easily.
The instructor made a step with her hands for me to step on. “Step in my hand and swing your other leg on top of the horse.” she instructed me. I did as I was told and I was on. “To get your horse to go faster or to have it start walking you have to say ‘go’.” That seemed simple enough. “And to stop him you say ‘woah’ and tug back on the reins.” I made a mental note of that.
Later, we all mounted our horses one by one until we were all at the exit. The exit led out onto a long dirt road. We started heading north up the road. There were loud buzzes coming from a truck that was chopping down trees behind us. We veered off of the road into the woods that surrounded the path.
“Your horse’s name is Justice,” the instructor said to one of the girls. She continued to name each of the horses. I admired the greenery around me. Birds chirped from all around. We entered the road again and went back and forth between the road and the woods.
FInally, we left the woods for the last time and just ahead of us was a little hill. It wasn’t small enough to see completely over though. Up over the hill came a little pony, with no one riding it. It galloped towards us. Our horses went silent, with their eyes fixed on the pony. From behind came a boy trying to get it back. He moved at a steady pace. Before I knew it, all of our horses were startled by the pony and took off. Our horses ran as fast as they could back the way we came. I look around and saw Shane, my sister, Isabell, and Shane’s mom. My horse was just behind the group of them.
“Woah, woah woah!” I shouted. I didn’t know what else to do. I tugged hard on the reins but he didn’t seem to budge. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” I knew to never trust a horse. My one-cent rides on Sally at Meijer’s payed of. I rode it like a jockey as my mom told me to do at Meijer’s. I was shaking and couldn’t stop it. I saw the wood cutter that we passed. How far had we travelled? A mile at least. Our horses slowed down right before the truck, probably not wanting to run into it.
“What the heck?” Ms. Smith exclaimed. She got off of her horse and helped my sister down, who had been crying (I didn’t blame her).
“That pony was probably trash talking,” kidded Shane. I weakly laughed, still shaken by what just happened. I hopped off of my horse and grabbed it by the ropes by its neck. Where was my mom? Or Conner? Everyone waited and was standing in front of the horses. They terrified me. After a long while, we saw my mom, Connor, the boy, and the guide. They were all still on their horses except for the guide. She was holding onto her horse though. Once they were by us she called people back at the ranch.
“That certainly was the most interesting ride of the Summer,” joked the guide. I didn’t like it at all. We talk about what happened as we all waited for them.
“Mine was just walking in circles,” my mom said “I’m glad you all are okay.”
“My horse was stupid and jumping up and down,” Connor said. We see the white truck coming to get us down the road.
“Would you like to ride in the truck or ride your horse back?” the instructor asked us all. After what just happened, I didn’t think I would ever want to even go near another horse again.
“No thanks,” all of us agreed. We sat in the bed of the truck with our legs hanging off the back. The instructor had to stay behind and take all of our horses in. We drove back and they let us off of the truck.
“Are we gonna get a refund?” Shane’s mom asked our group. “That was too short of a time.” I agreed. We were only there for a short time. And when we were out there, it was terrifying.
“Well we hope you come back again and have more fun!” the guide exclaimed. She disgusted me. We All hopped into our car and were off.
“I think we deserve ice cream,” said our moms.
“Yay!” we all said. Ice cream would be delicious on a hot day like today. We pulled into a ice cream place and got out. Riding a horse is something I will never do again.