When I was about 7 or 8 my brother and I would spend a weekend every three months with my dad’s parents. My grandfather had a mustang named Sugar Foot. Sugar Foot was a wild mustang that my grandfather had broke. We were able to ride him, he was pretty old when I was really ready to ride him.
So at one of the visits I got to ride Sugar Foot, my grandfather was with me. He had told me to be carful on how I nudged him. Well I didn’t nudge him correctly and he bucked me off. I feel of my wind knocked out of me and stunned. I was about ready to start crying when my grandpa came and stood over laughing. Asked if anything was broken, I said no. Then he said get back on… I did and was a little upset, mostly because I didn’t understand why you would have someone get right back up onto a horse that just threw you off their back like a bag of potatoes.
I got back onto that horse still hurting, but I kept riding. I went and took him around the house by myself. He began to start bucking me off, this time I wasn’t in a field with grass to lessen the blow, but a gravel road. So I just thought to myself “not again, I will not get bucked off again” So I let go of the reigns grabbed him by the mane and held on for dear life. He finally stopped, and I rode him back to the barn.
It wasn’t till I was older that I would really understand and appreciate the meaning of this moment. Without these types blips in life I truly feel like for myself I wouldn’t have learned how to push myself forward through the bad.