The great outdoors

At the implant camp we attended, our family had the opportunity to go horseback riding. From the age of 6 on, kids have to ride on a horse by themselves. Most of the kids don't mind, and I figure the stable must be used to kids with implants who may not hear perfectly as they ride through the forest. The horses all follow a guide up front in a straight line and there are other cowboys and cowgirls scattered along the line to give aid if it is needed. This is the third year we have gone on the horse rides and the biggest catastrophes we have seen is when the whole line has to be held up while some little kid dashes into the trees to relieve their bladder.

There is the possibility that you get a horse that wants to nibble the grass along the way in which case, the cowboys and cowgirls riding along the line will ride by and tell you to pull your horses head and keep them from grazing. Chance's older brother got such a grazer of a horse and the scenario we found ourselves in was truly comical.

We were in a long procession of riders, Chance and his brother were ahead of me and their sister, who was sharing my horse. Behind us was Chance's dad with his baby brother whose head was doubled in size when the riding helmet was put on.

The setting was beautiful, with wind blowing gently in the trees, a stream running down a slight hill, and the sound of horses hooves clompimg along on the dirt path. Chance could hear us sometimes if we called out to him, but several times between the distance of the horses, the wind and the sound of the steam, he was clomping along without interruption from us.

At the beginning of the ride, we had been briefed not to let our horses get to close together. As luck would have it, Chance had a rather slow poke of a horse that would literally stop to smell the flowers along the way. This caused Chance's brother who was behind Chance to get nervous that their horses were getting too close at times so he would pull back on the reins to slow his horse down. Not wanting to waste an opportunity to graze, the horse would begin chomping on the grass. I would pull back on our horse which the horse didn't like too much, he kind of had a purpose to his walk that did not include slowing down.

So there we were playing out the same scenario over and over again. The cowboy or cowgirl would ride past Chance and tell him to give his horse a little kick to get him moving. Chance would not hear this advice and could not hear us when we tried to tell hi again. So Chance's horse would slow way down, Chance's brother would then pull in the reins on his horse who would immediately start to graze. The cowboy or cowgirl would come along and tell him to pull up on the reins and not let the horse graze. Meanwhile, my horse was flipping his head impatiently as he wanted to keep up our stride. Soon, my horse decided that if we were going to be slowing down at a steady interval, he should graze too. Then the cowboy and cowgirl would come by and tell me to make my horse catch up to the others as they had started to move. I don't think the cowgirl who rode by us ever figured out that Chance could not hear her commands. She just thought we were all slacker horse riders; She was never mean, just doing her job of trying to keep the line in shape. It got to the point where I was just laughing though as we went through our little ritual of Chance's horse slowing down and setting off the chain reaction with the rest of us behind him. I don't know what the people behind us thought as we continually slowed down.

We all had a lot of fun and Chance wants to do it again next year so all is well that ends well.