Misty Ride
I had butterflies in my stomach driving up to Haleakala Ranch located on the Haleakala Volcano Mountain in Maui. ‘C’ and I were going horseback riding. I love horseback riding. I haven’t been able to ride since I hurt my knee, so I was excited. I grew up spending summer vacations at my Uncle’s house in San Lucas riding his horses and loving every moment of it. I think I was meant to be a sophisticated woman with property and a stable full of horses to ride anytime I wanted… well in my dreams anyway.

When we arrived at the Pony Express red stables at 4,000 feet on Haleakala it was sprinkling a little bit and misting.

“Oh I hope it doesn’t rain hard.” ‘C’ said excited. She had never been horseback riding before and was a little bit nervous.

We weren’t dressed for rain. So I was thankful when our spunky cowgirl tour guide passed out rain gear to everyone. She then matched us up to the horses according to how much riding experience we had. ‘C’s horse was a 3 year old gentle baby named Applejack. Mine was a little bit older, spunkier and was named A’hou.

I took A’hou’s reins in my left hand, put my left foot in the stirrup and prepared to mount him. This moment would be the test for my knee. I was about to put all of my weight on my left knee that I had two reconstructive surgeries on and pull myself up onto this big beautiful horse. Two years ago, I couldn’t even mount a Carousel horse at Magic Mountain. Even though I’ve made great improvements with my knee through physical therapy-- I was still a little bit apprehensive as I grabbed hold of the saddle, put weight on my knee and with great determination pulled myself up onto the horse. I had done it! I had worked my way back to being able to do one of my favorite things in life. My entire face beamed with sheer delight! I reached down, adjusted the stirrups, leaned back and put weight on my knees testing their resilience. I could feel a little bit of tension in the muscles pulling on my knee but it wasn’t enough to stop me from riding. I deal with more pain than that everyday just climbing stairs. I reached forward and began stroking A’hou’s neck, letting him know just how happy I was to be riding him today. And then I grabbed his reins and turned him in a complete circle, backed him up, waited for the others to finish mounting their horses and prepared for our ride on Haleakala Ranch to begin.

We rode trails around Haleakala Volcano Mountain through misty forests. At the top of one ridge the most remarkable view of the island’s valley and coast was displayed shrouded in the mist. It was breathtaking! I wanted to kick A’hou into a full out run and ride the winds on that mountain. I wanted to spend all day exploring, galloping, running, walking the misty trails. And I did in spirit… in reality, I kept A’hou to a walk with the rest of the group following our spunky cowgirl tour guide who rode turned around in her saddle most of the time talking to us and checking on our progress.

Two hours later we were back at the Pony Express red stable and it was time to dismount. I didn’t want my ride to be over. I didn’t want to say goodbye to A’hou. I could have ridden all day like I did when I was younger at my Uncle’s house in San Lucas.

“That was so much fun!” ‘C’ exclaimed as we headed back down the mountain in our rental car.

“Yes, it was!” I replied with misty eyes, a warmed heart and a yearning to ride again.  posted by Matildakay at 5:03 PM