Wednesday, June 07, 2006

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty...

"Hi-Yo Tungsten!"
Or not. What the hell do I know about horses? Apart from a ride on Sunshine the pony back when I was... four? (Help me out, parents!)... My experience with horses have pretty much been summed up as: "What's that smell?" Yet as a part of our trip to Bryce we chose to go on a horse ride through Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest. Not just any old horse ride, but a four hour trip in 95-ish degree weather in the afternoon. Sunblock? Yep. With a trowel. But I still got a bit of a burn, and a nifty pale watch-shaped patch on my wrist. The scenery, however, was out of this world. By that I mean that it really did feel as if we were on another planet. I learned that the horse knew exactly what she was doing and where to go, so that enabled me to hold the reins with one hand and take pictures with the other. Yes, I was taking pictures from the back of a moving horse. Through more luck than skill, they came out clearly. (You better believe I was surprised!)

The guy on the horse is not me, obviously. That was one of our trail guides. I call him "Tex" for two reasons. First and foremost is that I have no idea what his actual name is, and second calling him "Utie" is just too weird. I just liked the shot, because it showed him in action and showed off how good my saddle-based camera work is. I'd consider it as a career, except my ass would never forgive me. And I ain't talking donkeys.

3 comments:

Oliviah said...

Oh yeah, these places do indeed look out of this world. So glad to see the pictures!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. That looks like an awesome experience, though my wife would kill me if I even suggested it. She's really afraid of them lol I would love it though! :-) Great pictures by the way.

TotalChaos said...

What I wouldn't give, to be able to go there and do that. But those days have gone. I love to be able to live vicariously, through pics like this.