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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Saddle Makes All the Difference

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
          How hard could it be. I just need a cowboy hat and some close-fitting underwear.
        Those were my answers to a question I was asked every time I told someone I was going to ride a horse in the parade in Edgewood.
        The question was: "Have you ever ridden a horse before?"
        If you've seen me you may know why. As a reporter, I use a pen and pad instead of a hand-rolled smoke and a gun. And instead of bustin' broncos I listen to people talk about important issues like what the word "rustic" means in modern-day Edgewood.
        I've never laid down the law by saying, "git a rope," but I do ask probing questions like, "How do you spell your name?" or "What was the middle thing?"
        I actually did ride horses as a kid, but all I really remember is falling off of them. The most memorable was a white pony named Devil Spawn. At least that should have been her name.
        When I was 12 my neighbor brought old Spawny to the top of a dirt road on a hill near Deer Valley and said I could ride her. Without much hesitation I put my KangaROOs shoe in his hand, hoisted up to her back and was off, the horse trotting, then galloping, down the hill.
        I didn't fall off all at once. Holding double-fists full of white mane, I slid off-center by small degrees.
        As I pulled her hair and squeezed my 'ROOS into her ribs, I suddenly realized how incredibly useful stirrups, saddle horns and reins are. I was at a roughly 90 degree angle to the pony before I finally bounced off.
        Fortunately, I didn't have another equine-related disaster at the parade. That's in part because of Jim and Marilyn Stundon, who rode with a horse-riding club called the High Desert Riders, whose generous offer of a loaner horse for the parade came with a saddle and a turquoise neckerchief.
        Now, this section is called "Limited Access" because it is supposed to be situations or places reporters can get to that other people can't, but there were more than 70 entries in the parade, and generally more than one person per entry, so it's hardly limited. But I've never ridden a horse in a parade before and it was an adventure for me.
        The staging area for horses, behind Edgewood Elementary School, had 20 or 30 trailers. It was a kind of carnival atmosphere with two multiton long-horned steer walking through the parking lot, 3-foot tall ponies getting strapped to carts, men in ten-gallon hats holstering pistols, and even the occasional run-away horse.
        Being a part of the parade was even better. Waving and tossing candy to kids, sometimes even when their parents told me not to, yelling to the people whose names have woven in and out of my articles, others who I haven't yet managed to mention. It was nice to actually be a part of something rather than just observing.
        The best part of the whole parade was seeing the four civic-minded men and woman of the Edgewood Town Council who took time out on a Saturday to serve as judges for the parade. And that's when my horse decided to drop a few road apples.
        One councilor yelled that I was littering and another said, if that's how I am, he might not take my next article too seriously, but the best comment was Councilor Rita-Loy Simmons', a known connoisseur of bucolic scenes.
        She waited until I came across her at the parade's destination, Wildlife West Nature Park.
        "Your timing was perfect," she said.
        Limited Access is a occasional column by Telegraph reporters giving our readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the events and stories we follow. If you have an idea for Limited Access, please contact Rory McClannahan at 823-7102 or online at editor@mvtelegraph.com.