28/06/2022
Journal story by Mustang Meg ... living wild out west!
Emerald Eyes
As a kid I had the good fortune to go on a horseback riding vacation with a friend of mine to Desert Hot Springs for a week during summer break- and under a full-moon. The host/riding instructor we stayed with had a house full of cats she'd saved from coyotes, abandonments or drop-off, or the desert itself at one time or another. Her cats were all different sizes, shapes and colors, much like her horses. But this isn't a story about cats. We stayed there during the week of a full-moon because we were able to only ride at night as it was unbearably hot during the day in this beautiful but harsh desert of southern California.
Although I've been on horses since I started toddling about, it's here I first learned about real riding by using minimal aids, and ba****ck. I enjoyed learning to ride without a saddle at a walk, trot, and lope without the aid of stirrups. My riding balance, posture, and confidence grew with every ride. I learned to ride pretty well because we rode every day and into the night. We rode so much that we had to switch to fresh horses, giving the winded ones a break.
Over the course of the week, we had a grand time laughing it up, and kids being kids... came up with other ideas we found entertaining, whether it was licking salt blocks, sitting in the water trough, or throwing dried cowpies and horse-apples at eachother, the list of mischief was endless. But riding ba****ck by the light of a moon was nothing short of icing on this cupcake and an adventure for a horse-crazy kid. Being an animal lover I felt right at home surrounded by many different animals. But besides cats and horses, I met another critter in this wild desert nebula.
All day long in the house during the intense heat, my friend and I anticipated being outdoors and riding horses after sundown, and finally be out of the sweltering stuffy indoors full of cats, no such thing as air-conditioning out here. The house was inundated with cats, cats everywhere. And cats being cats, all were mostly sleeping up high or down low, in sunlit areas and dark corners. There were cats on the counters, the coffee table, anywhere there was sitting or walking space. While we snuggled our favorites, we would talk & breathe horses, draw horses, or play with horse models. If we weren't doing that, we were watching movies with horses ... and you guessed it, with a cat asleep on top of the television set. But as soon as the sun hid it's burning rays, followed by the handsome orange moon, we got ready for our outdoor adventures. When the moon showed it's round face over the desert horizon, we eagerly changed into our riding jeans, boots and tank tops, tripping over cats running out the door to head for the dry dusty paddock with halters in hand, searching for our favorite horses... mine was always black. Good to breathe the fresh desert air!
Though the sun went down, the air was still much like a convection oven. We weren't going to work the horses until it had a chance to cool down more. There was a tackroom next to the outdoor arena with all our supplies. When it got a bit cooler and darker, we used a flashlight to go into the tiny, dusty and cobweb-decorated tackroom to get brushes & bridles, and bribery treats for the horses. It was the very first night I noticed tiny little glowing emerald lights at the end of my flashlight's reach... here and there... on the floorboards as well as dark corners of the tack room. Quite the oddity I thought, but was extra stunned and surprised when I saw them move! Transfixed and unable to move my eyes away, I asked what they were and got a casual reply of "tarantulas". I about jumped out of my skin and up onto my friend. Being a kid with minimal spider experience let alone big hairy tarantulas the size of kittens, I was a bit "creeped-out" as we said back then. Strangely at the same time amazed and fascinated, I couldn't help but keep staring at the tiny glowing and motating beads of light. I focused my flashlight more directly on one for a closer look. Yup, their chunky fuzzy bodies and bountiful load of hairy angular legs confirmed their identities.
After some time I managed to pick my jaw up off the floorboards and return my mind to earth, by brain was recalculating trying to acclimate to the idea of these green-eyed beings sharing my space. Not crazy about the new found idea of them in close proximity to myself, but wanting to "cowgirl up" ..... I managed to peel myself off my unsympathetic and laughing friend. Once on the ground in the darkness I was keenly aware of my feet and afraid to step where I couldn't see. I didn't dare step backward without the flashlight around my feet, because I didn't want to step on one.. they were much too big, and I would surely feel one beneath my boot. But kids being of a resilient nature, I eventually got used to the whole idea of desert tarantulas and chalked us up to being more badassy then ever. I enjoyed shining my light on these critters sporting 5 o'clock shadows to watch them scurry away. I became brave enough, I wandered around looking for more ... 'Brave' that is, but with three stipulations: as long as they kept moving from me, did not hold their ground and stair back, or dart in my direction. Satisfied that I hailed the power, my thoughts raced back to the horses tied to the railing waiting for a couple distractible kids. The wide-open desert... moonlight, horses, a laughing friend, and crazy glowing emerald eyes... it doesn't get better than this, I thought and glad they were part of our desert world.
The tarantulas and their tiny green eyes in the darkness became part of the captivation of the southwest desert and the magic of that time in my life, all with a kid's big sense, thirst, and quest for adventure and simple amazement. I grew up with the fortune of being outdoors, and many of my adventures were with horses. Every kid in my opinion should at some point in their lives feel grit between their teeth, grab a fist full of horse-hair in a full gallop ba****ck, feel soft breath and a velvety nose of a horse on their cheek, hear a welcoming nicker, have a good old-fashioned horse-hair sandwich, and be truly in awe.... amazed, and inspired by nature and all it's amazing gifts. Even tiny moving emeralds in the dark.
Here are a few images of my diaries, and pages/excerpts within...
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.491015092384534&type=3
Keep the WILD in our WEST, and our WEST WILD!
Sonya, aka Mustang Meg
Follow me also~
VIDS www.mustangjourney.com
WEB www.mustangwild.com
SHOP www.wildhorsespirit.com
FB www.mustangmeg.com
Contact:
MustangWild
PO Box 785
Lebanon, OR 97355
www.roamwildfund.com
