Horseback Riding at The Gap

On April 18th, Burke had a flex day off of work and took Daphne and I horseback riding out at The Parowan Gap.  Burke's family (or rather "the farm") owns several horses that they use frequently in the warmer months to herd the cows, check lines up at  the mountain property, etc.  As a girl, I had always dreamed of owning horses and being a proficient rider.  Tasha and I even took horseback riding lessons for a time when I was in middle school and loved pretending we were cowgirls.  When Burke and I were dating and I learned his family had horses, I had great visions of spending lots of time in the saddle.  However, in our five years of marriage, we had only been riding twice!

I couldn't understand why Burke was always so resistant to the idea of going for a ride.  Truthfully, we were always so busy when we were together with the family in Parowan, that riding would mean we would need to plan well ahead of time or make a special trip to Parowan just for the occasion.  Finally, and a bit grumpily, Burke agreed that now that we lived so close in Enoch we could go up with no other objective than to ride.  I was so excited at the prospect of a morning ride, but once we got to the farm, I began to see why Burke doesn't enjoy the process.  We had aimed for a 9 or 10 AM ride and had packed lunches to eat out on the trail.  However, between helping with the morning chores, feeding the cows, gathering the equipment from the quonset hut, driving across the valley to the field where the horses were currently grazing, catching the horses and getting them in the trailer, we didn't even head out to The Gap until 2 PM!  By that time, Daphne and I had eaten lunch in the truck and were getting pretty worn out and we hadn't even been on a horse yet!

Finally, Cinco de Mayo (the daughter of Burke's horse Danny who died the year before we got married) and Sugar were all saddled and we were ready to go!  As we began bumping along the trail, my 4-month preggo belly was feeling so tight against a full bladder.  I finally had to stop and use the great outdoors and from that point on, the bouncing didn't bother me a bit.

We were limited on time by this point, so we did a quick ride to the top of the hills, enjoyed the view for a moment and then began the descent.  At this point, Burke was fed up with his stirrups and got down to make some adjustments.  Right as he was about to swing his leg up in the stirrup to mount again, Cinco got spooked and lashed out with her back hoof, making a sickening *crack* as she connected solidly with Burke's kneecap.  It was awful as I watched Burke drop to the ground, cussing in pain.  In my head I played through an entire dramatic scenario where I tried to get my pregnant self, my two-year-old, injured husband and two horses off of the mountain.  Thankfully, Burke was able to get back in the saddle and finish the ride.  He could still put weight on it, but we're nearly 2 months out now and it is still causing him excruciating pain anytime he bumps into it, so he finally has an appointment with a knee specialist next week.

Even though it was a bummer of an ending to the ride, I was so impressed that after the initial cussing, Burke was so calm about the accident.  He didn't say anything to make me feel guilty like, "I told you we shouldn't have gone on this stupid ride!"  Although I know he was thinking it. :)  Needless to say, it will probably be another 5 years before I can convince him to go for another pleasure ride.  Bummer.