Cowgirl Dreams

Some of my favorite horseback riding memories of Emma come from the times we spent at a guest ranch in Arizona. We went to the ranch for the first time when Emma was in 4th grade and loved it so much that we went back 4 years in a row. Each year when we were contemplating where we should go for our family vacation we would ask the girls if they wanted to go to Disney, where they had never been, or back to the ranch. The ranch won every time.


After a two-year break, we went back to the ranch for a 5th time two years ago. By this time, Emma was a sophomore in high school and had graduated from the kids program, so she was taking lessons and loping tests and going on trail rides with the grown-ups. We weren’t sure how she would handle that transition. She’d always loved the camaraderie of the kids program and we were worried that she wouldn’t find kids her own age to hang out with. We shouldn’t have been concerned, though. It seemed like only minutes after our arrival, both Emma and Sarah were happily ensconced in a group of friends. Now we would just need to worry about whether we would get to spend any time with them.


The picture I’ve included is from the breakfast ride that Sarah, Emma and I went on. We rode our horses up onto a hilltop and then were treated to a fabulous breakfast cooked outside in an elaborate campfire kitchen. We could smell breakfast cooking long before we reached the campsite, so by the time we arrived, we were starving. We hopped off our horses and got in line to wait our turn to be served Frisbee-sized blueberry pancakes that were being made to order and were topped off with melted butter and warm syrup. The pancakes were so big, there wasn't really any room for the eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits that they were also serving. That required a second trip.


As delightful as that memory is, though, my favorite memory is from our last day at the ranch. Peter, Emma and I (Sarah was too young), joined some other guests to compete in the ranch’s weekly calf penning competition – and we were good! We had three different challenges to complete. We came out on top in two of the three and took home the trophy for the week.


I’m not going to lie. I was pretty thrilled by our win and when we got home I told everyone who would listen all about it. It was at the climax of the story, the part where I describe victoriously bringing home the trophy, that Sarah would pitch in, “You mean that little plastic thing?” She clearly had not enjoyed having to watch our win from the stands. But not even Sarah’s sarcasm could take the shine off my plastic horseshoe trophy.  It still sits on my dresser – a reminder of a place I loved; a place that I will probably never return to because I shared it with Emma and it will never feel the same.