My wife Terry used to love to ride horses. She used to volunteer for the Police Equestrian Unit in Orlando riding the police horses to make sure they got enough exercise. On a vacation to visit my family in Pennsylvania she went for a trail ride while I sketched the horses in the coral. She stopped riding abruptly when a police horse got spooked and threw her to the ground. She ended up with a huge bruise down her leg which had her limping for a week.Horse riders say that it isn’t a matter of “if” you will be thrown, but a matter of “when” you will be thrown. I have never trusted horses and I have never sat on top of a horse. I suspect they don’t have my best interests at heart.
On a vacation to the Canadian Rockies this year, Terry once again went on a trail ride that went for miles up a muddy path to a glacier lookout. I stayed behind and did a sketch. The trail horses were super calm and she didn’t get thrown or injured. Perhaps as the saying goes, she is back in the saddle. The trail horses had Western saddles that have that horn to grab onto. The police horses have English saddles that leave a rider with nothing to grab if they loose their balance. Regardless of the saddle though, I still prefer to sketch horses rather than ride them.