Amigo Takes a Giant Leap

I've been wanting to write about this since it happened.

This is a picture of Amigo, and he is the star of this story.

Nina (our young French friend from the Seraphim family) and I went for a trail ride on Rocket (me) and Amigo (her). We rode over to Alan & Magic's place, up past their house and into the woods that Woody and Andy own. Then we rode down the trail and around, following Lewis Creek. It was hot and buggy, but riding is always fun so we sweated in the sun by the creek as we walked. But then I had this brilliant idea: to cross Lewis Creek and make a beeline for home. I was sure that home was straight...that way.

I asked Nina, what do you think? Right across the stream there is a trail that will take us straight home. Want to try crossing. She shrugged and said, "Why not?"

So I picked a spot that looked shallow. The creek is very full from all the rain we've had, so this wasn't easy. But below a dam looked pretty good. Rocket picked his way down to the water, sniffed it, walked slowly in, and then picked up speed as the water got deeper, and deeper, and then I thought, "Oh, please, don't fill up my boots!" but it did. And then I was just hoping that the saddle wouldn't go under, but it did, and the next thing, I'm up to my chest in water, Rocket has nothing but his nose out & forward as he strikes out for the opposite bank. A few seconds later he found ground under his feet and heaved us up and into the trees on the opposite side. I turned around to see how Amigo was doing, just in time to see him land in the middle of the creek as Nina slid off to the side. The splash was like the biggest cannonball you ever heard. Wild-eyed, Amigo struck out for where he'd seen his buddy disappear into the trees and heaved himself across in about a second, he was so scared. The poor guy apparently thought he could jump over, and was freaked out to find himself in water. Nina swam philosophically to the shore while Rocket and I cornered Amigo. She got out, started wringing out her shirt, and remarked in her French accent, "I took a bath."

God I love trail rides. All the way home, I kept giggling.