by Sunshine Flowers

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

As long as I can remember, my twin sister and I have been in love with the horse the majestic, beautiful, amazing horse. You've heard the saying, the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a woman,' and in our case that couldn't be more true. In the mid- 1970's, my sister and I were in junior high school, with all its' joys and difficulties. Growing up in a small Ohio town, we wanted a horse more than anything in the world. Our parents said we were "Horse Crazy," and we begged daily for a horse, to no avail. We ate, slept, and breathed horses, doing anything we had to do to be around them, even mucking stalls in the dead of winter, just to be able to take off bareback (no saddles, helmets or safety vests in those days!) for a pell-mell run through the fields. Was there any other way to ride? Have bridle, will travel! The warmth of the horse under us, the wind in our faces, the exhilaration of the speed of the gallop heavenly! We loved everything about horses, including that "horse" smell! Fast forward to 1997 our dream had come true, and we finally had our own horses, but my Morgan mare was stabled nearly 30 miles from my sister's quarter horse gelding, and neither one of us had a trailer. I had purchased Mystique two years earlier, and my sister had owned Cimarron for nearly 5 years, but we had never actually ridden them together. We were thrilled when the opportunity arose for her to trailer her horse with a friend to my barn so that we could ride together again! The big day dawned cool and clear, the kind of early fall day all riders wish for - cool enough for light jackets and nearly bug-free. The leaves were brilliant and the early morning sun shone softly as my sister and Cimarron arrived and unloaded. Our horses liked each other right away, and the cool fall air had them both raring to go. As we rode down the wide trail side by side, trying to keep the horses at a walk, we reveled in each other's company, just like old times! The woods were resplendent with the beauty of autumn; the brilliant red and orange leaves falling through the cool air like colorful rain. Rounding a bend in the trail, the bridle path spread out before us like a magical raceway, and a long, straight, gradual uphill grade came into view. That was all we needed to be transported to an earlier time a time when we hadn't a care in the world. My sister yelled, "Race ya!" and we both urged our horses to a gallop in that heartbeat furious hoof beats and much laughter followed, and

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