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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Pam LeBlanc
I go horse riding for the first time in 30 years
A lightning storm outshone the supermoon Saturday night, disrupting plans for a moonlight trail ride at Rock’n S Ranch in Lampasas, but no matter.
My running buddy Marcy Stellfox and I just stayed up watching the sky flicker between black and yellow, hoisted the rain fly on our tent and postponed our ride until the next morning.
Marcy recently bought a horse, a Missouri Fox Trotter she dubbed Lilybug. Lilybug lives at a facility in Lampasas called Rock’n S Ranch, which offers horse training, seminars and the occasional trail ride to folks who keep their animals there. (They also go by the name Hippie Horses, which just fits the place, from the moment you spot the chickens and plop yourself on the living room sofa next to owners JD and Dena Wilks.)
Scientists nicknamed Saturday’s full moon a supermoon because it peaked just as it passed its closest point to Earth in its orbit. We envisioned ourselves moseying through the oak- and cedar-dotted hillsides and splashing through the creek as the moon shone overhead in gigantic glowing glory.
We even got the horses saddled. That’s when the skies lit up, the wind whipped and fat raindrops started splatting onto the hides of the horses.
Lilybug and Dusty, my designated four-hooved partner for the night, didn’t seem to mind. But we didn’t trust the conditions and bagged the ride.
We watched the storm from for a while, then retreated inside the Wilks’ house. After midnight, when the worst had passed, we headed down to our tent for the night. (Thank goodness we’d set up the rain fly!)
The next morning, we headed to the barn.
Lilybug grunted happily as Marcy picked her hooves clean, brushed her smooth palomino coat, cinched up a gorgeous tooled Western saddle and mounted up.
I clambered aboard Dusty, and JD and Dena led the way down the trail.
The storm blew down a few trees, but left the air fresh and sweet. We meandered past a spring-fed pond, through fields of Indian blankets and into thickets of trees.
I took horseback riding lessons as a kid, but it’s been about 30 years since I’ve done much riding.
I love sharing an adventure with another animal, relying on it to carry you through the landscape and trying not to get in its way as it picks its footing. It’s so real, in the way that cars and computers and pavement and iPhones just aren’t.