Well, some girls head for a spa on the week-ends and when I spent time in New York – I have to admit it was a great destination.  But this week-end 8 of my cowgirl friends and I are headed to Judy Simmons Ranch for a week-end of horsemanship.  The point is – we can always learn to be better riders and our horses are always better with more training.  As they say – wet saddle pads make the horse – it’s all about the ridin’.  So I packed my trailer – tack – clothes – hay and feed for Lefty – headed to Burnet, Texas.

The first thing we all do is get our horses out of the trailers and get them settled – water and hay.  Horses first!!!  Then everyone heads to the guest house for good food – lots of laughs – catching up on each other’s lives since we were last together.  Now these “cowgirls” are also ranchers, bankers, real estate brokers, teachers, homemakers, and owners of their own businesses – all very accomplished – all with the spirit of Texas running passionately through their veins.

Up early – feed the horses – saddle – in the arena by 9:00 a.m.  Lanny is brilliant – he reads people like he reads horses.  So after giving us our first instruction – he quickly sizes me up – calls me “high energy” – tells me “slow is right”.  He is dead on – a horse can feel every move you make – all the energy you generate.  You and your horse are a team – both must feel confident and secure.   So we are instructed on technique – and we ride – listen – ride – and ride until almost 8:00 p.m.  To tell you the truth, I don’t anyone was really ready to quit.

There is nothing better than a good horse and a day of ridin’.  I have a poster in the ranch office that says:

The emancipation of women may not have begun with the vote, nor in the cities where women marched and carried signs and protested – but rather when they mounted a good cowhorse and realized how different and fine the view.  From the back of a horse, the world looked wider.