A good friend and neighbor took me horse trail riding this weekend. Sheer joy. We rode down into a valley in the Cumberland Plateau at Big South Fork, a National Preserve in North Central Tennessee.
The problems I thought about the day we drove to the park melted with the sunset as we rode further down into a valley where we would spend the night in a pioneer settlement re-creation with no electricity, a place that gives a sense of peace like a sleeping baby: you sense quiet now but you never know what will soon break the silence or craw across the path. We saw snakes, a boar was reported but we didn't see it, and we saw hundreds of butterflies, several turtles, squirrels, birds on the way to enjoying the switchbacks going up rocky canyons and bluffs.
We were able to trot and even get the horses into full gallop once or twice, and I felt my roots as an Oklahoma boy riding "socks," my grandpa's horse kick in as I whooped and hollowered and twirled my hat in a big loop as I rode. It was beautiful, and my horse named "chief" was a great horse for me, even when I fell off while ducking for a branch--I got back on! I was thankful chief did not decide to lay down in the creeks or river we crossed as the other two horses did for Tim and his father, Bob. They handled it well and simply gave a "Yawh! Get up!" and the horses obeyed.
We enjoyed both the horses company and one another's presence and conversation throughout the six mile ride in and 12 mile loop out of the valley back to the horse trailer the next day.
I'm thankful to have great neighbors and people who draw me into fellowship with this incredible creation that God has so powerfully and wonderfully made for us to enjoy and participate in and praise him for. May the God who created horses, streams, me, and the butterfly be praised.
5:46:04 PM 
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