Being from the country you learn to drive. It’s long distance to get anywhere, town is an hour away. You could have friends from school who are from the other side of town and they are an hour from town making them, two hours from you. And you both live on dirt roads so that is a thing. You learn that a freshly graded road can be dangerous to drive on but so too can washboard, potholes and frost heaves also real things. The trip can also be made more interesting with the weather.
Canadian weather driving: mud that stuff pulls you around and you get stuck there is no bottom to this stuff. Snow, is not just white mud. If you have never driven in a snow storm, it is kind of like in space movies when they do the warp drive and the stars are rushing by and everything's a blur yah that is a snowstorm. Slush, now you have mud mixed with snow and throw in some ice not always fun. Hydroplaning due to excessive rain hammering down in a veil you cannot see through or freezing rain that is a good time, like being on an ice rink with crocs on. Fog oh we don’t have anything on Britain I am sure but the moose and deer can hide in that like you cannot imagine. Yup that is right you also need to watch for the wildlife and not so wildlife, in the country there are also going to be cows on the road or horses, sheep sometimes goats and if there is a pig call the neighbors. Yes we Canadians figure we can drive.
I remember when my best friend got her license and a little blue car. She and I would drive around our back roads, listening to music and feeling so carefree. A good country girl, she could drive fast, change a tire and get us anywhere safe. Sitting in her passenger seat the feeling of freedom was amazing. Arm out the window, singing along to the radio, every turn a new adventure. Ah yah bliss. When I learned to drive and had all the responsibility, not as much of a feeling of bliss. I felt in charge, important to be trusted on the road. The ability to go anywhere and being in control of my own destiny, was pretty great
Then like any good horsewoman I learned to hook-up a horse trailer. Now I had the same feeling as the first day with my license, tempered with being in charge all wrapped up with more responsibility of having a live animal in the trailer. The real feeling, less bliss more stressed. But, the excitement of being hooked up and headed somewhere with your horse, on the road together on an adventure oh yah now this was really something.
Not to mention the painstaking hours it took to initially get ready. First off the horse needs to look good, better groom and clip and shine up your pony. Not like you are going to a show this first time around, just going to go and ride anywhere that is not in your own backyard. The horse is clean, blanketed with shipping boots, maybe a tail guard, head bumper, fancy halter covered in fleece. With more clothes on than you have ever seen professionals use. You pack the front tack with everything you need. Then pause, did you remember both bell boots? Tear it all apart then to get it all jammed back in, to turn around and realize that the saddle is still on the barn floor. And here you go again, to get everything heaved out and back in and then some more totally necessary, while completely not important stuff in the truck. You load the horse and YOU ARE READY TO GO!
You get there. You are so happy everything went fine on the trip despite looking in the rear view mirror, to see if everything is ok back there that you don’t remember the road at all. You are there, you jump your horse out and he looks like a million bucks, once you get his wardrobe that cost near as much off him. You tack up, mentally giving yourself a major high five for having everything you needed plus extras. As you swing your leg over you have never felt more independent and accomplished. This is an amazing feeling.
Your ride does not have to be the best, your horse could deposit you in the dirt, it won’t matter because nothing can take away that you just managed to get there, to get dumped in someone else's dirt. But thankfully there were some great moments of your ride and you finally managed to get that time in an arena to really get a work in. It feels different somewhere else, your horse is different somewhere else. 
Proudly you come back to your trailer and you put all your gear away while giving your horse a hay bag that you also remembered to grab out of the barn last minute. You both are relaxed and happy, you chat with a friend casually, happy to see each other there at the arena. All the while you are not expressing on the outside how amazing this day, this ride has truly felt. You load your horse into the trailer secretly relieved he has behaved and this time did not give you the NO face at the trailer door. You do a walk around and check to make sure everything is fine like you were taught to do. You jump into that driver's seat and turn the radio up, ease your sunglasses on and roll the window down and head for home. Thinking about all the events, clinics and places you can go, the adventures all beginning.
As you pull into your yard smiling your head off and hearing your horse banging around in the back as his friends whinny hello, you catch yourself still smiling, feeling elated. You are not thinking about the gear you have to drag from the trailer or the balled up sweaty horse blanket and shipping boots covered in manure you did not put back on or the incredible pile of steaming dung that five horses could not have made that he left in the trailer or the trashed hay bag you lovingly left for him on the way home. No, you are still walking on air, leading your partner back to the paddock and watching him roll in the dirt and sauntering over to his pals.
You are remembering that feeling of being a teenager rocking out in a car feeling free strong and alive. As the sun sets on this incredible day you think to yourself.
Lucky me.
Where did you and your horse go on your first trip?
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