Horses

Believe it or not when I was a young teen in Texas I worked on a ranch.  I know, I know, you would never guess.  I worked in the barn to begin with mucking out stalls.  Mucking stalls was not my favorite activity but I did love being around the horses.  I loved talking to the horses and enjoyed their company, they seemed to enjoy mine as well.  I advanced to exercising the horses daily which I loved, I saddled and rode multiple horses every day.  Each horse had it's own personality, some loved to run some to meander others to sort of frolic and play.  After a long time working on the ranch I even got to try helping break a few horses.  I must admit the thrill was something fun but it was frightening at the same time.   I only worked with them after they had been saddle broken and were only grouchy.  I loved my job and was sad when we moved away from the area and had to give up my job. 
I always sought out horses wherever we lived after that.  When we lived in Arizona I had plenty of opportunity to ride.  One funny ride I had was on one crazy horse.  We were visiting a friend on his ranch out in the desert, he had many acres so there was plenty of room to ride.  This particular horse was lazy and our friend warned me that it was  I laughed and told him it was ok I could handle him.  I have had handled many horses in my life so I was so sure I could handle this one.  The horse and I were doing just fine but I could tell he was not happy at having to cooperate.  He decided he was done and headed back toward the main house, I tried to steer him in a different direction and he wasn't going to have it so he went toward a cottonwood tree.  The only trees that grew in the desert area where I lived were cottonwood trees and they are fairly short, even the  large ones.  So, he heads toward this "large" cottonwood and goes right under a branch that just barely clears the height of his head which of course means it will not clear me.  I lean back as far as I can and flatten myself against the saddle and horse.  The rascal!  Not only did he do this once but he did it again!  He was trying to scrape me off his back but he was unsuccessful.  He took off running jumping washes going crazy and doing everything he could to get me off his back.  After a while, after all his antics and after he realized I wasn't going to be swiped off he settled down and we had a nice little ride until I was ready to be done.