“Ouch!” I yelled. The cowboy/horse guide had pricked me with the buckle of the leather chaps he was putting on my legs. We were at a ranch, ready to go horse-back riding for 2 hours. We all got chaps and helmets. We walked to where the horses were and something hit me. No it was not the horse. It was the smell! Like dirty hay, flies, and dung. I was soon up on a horse named Yaprock. ( A kind of leaf that grows in the mountains.) She had white hair tinted brown, and her body was snow white speckled with brown. I was lucky, everyone but me had hard leather saddles, I had a sheep wool saddle. We started out by going downhill. The guide said to lean back.  Then we started uphill. The sun was setting, and the sky was pink. The air was cool.  All the clouds looked like cotton candy just waiting to be eaten by the moon.  The path was terracotta red, I could see the many tire prints. Then we went off the road through a nature fast food place. Actually it was a valley. But it had every kind of wild flower and leaf. The horses kept eating and walking. Once Yaprock even bit off a whole section of a plant and started eating as she walked.  We continued through mountain path and at one point Carter and I were fighting to be after the guide. First I was, but then Carter’s horse got in front of Yaprock! I coaxed her until she got in front of Carter. Well really we were neck to neck with them then Yaprock cut them off and almost got in front of the guide but that’s a minor detail. After that was when the view really hit me. After living in the suburbs for 9 years all the space shocks you. There were no buildings, no light-up billboards. The valleys looked like bowls and the hills and rocks were cradling them in their arms.   As we got toward the end we started going down STEEP, STEEP hills. My only thought was how I would look as a pancake on the bottom of the hill. The wind was blowing wildly which scared the horses. (And me.) Off to the right we could see a rainstorm far away. After we finally got on flat ground mom yelled out in joy. We went over a road and through a tunnel. Soon we were back at the ranch. When we got back I slid off of Yaprock. As we were walking back something stepped on my shoe, and yes, it was the horse. Yaprock’s metal horseshoe and weight crushed down on my shoe. Tears slid down my face. She did not step on my toe very much, just a brush up against my toe but it still hurt.  As I was limping trying to pull the horse into the stable, I was also running away from her. But I was holding onto her harness. It felt like being stuck inside of a box, except with big teeth and pointy feet. Then, I was literally stuck. Yaprock nuzzled me into the wall and dad’s horse came from behind trapping me. She did not mean to scare me but she kept pushing me against the wall with her big teeth and stepping closer. Now I am not claustrophobic, but I was deathly afraid. Then Carter came to the rescue. He took the rains from me and I ran to my mom. I started crying. She took me over to a bench to check my toe. Well… It was fine. Sure it hurt but I was really crying out of surprise. Plus, it was still connected to my body and not black and blue. Imagine how awful that would sound if you switched the *was* and the *not*.