It was like being in a Western Movie, but in really really slow motion.

I have a tendency to procrastinate, if you haven't noticed. I think about all of the blog posts I want to write, but then my brain and hands are saying, "Screw that, I don't want to be put to use."

So, today, I'm forcing myself to update every single thing I've done over the last month in three separate posts. And this will get done, no matter how much my brain and fingers throb by the end of it.

About 3 weeks ago, I was sitting in my living room thinking about how I live in Colorado, the outdoor capital (I don't know if that's true), and that I don't take full advantage of what it has to offer. I know, I live here, I have all the time in the world and if I want to sit in my bed all day and do nothing, then lazy I shall be. But after doing some hard research (I Googled), I found a plethora of ranches in Boulder and Estes Park that offer horseback riding. I'm not a huge fan of horseback riding but I have done it once before and I didn't fall off the horse, so I like to call myself a professional. One ranch, by the name of Sombrero Ranch, offered a 4 hour horseback riding in Estes Park with a breakfast halfway through. Food? and horseback riding? I'm sold....mostly because food was involved. My roommate and I decided to go together and do something different. We quickly regretted it when we realized we needed to get up at 5am to drive 45 minutes to Estes to find out it was about 50 degrees or lower. I have never been so cold in Colorado, and yes, I know, wait until the winter. But the winter is supposed to be cold, so I'm prepared for that.

We thought doing this would be a fun way to meet new people from Colorado. There was only one other woman in our group, and where was she from? Manhattan. Seriously? You couldn't even give us a woman from a different region of the country? So the whole meeting new people didn't really work out. But she was fun to listen to because we got a piece of that Northeast attitude and it made us both smile the whole time.

Stephanie, our guide for the trip took us to meet our horses. My horse's name was Cheech (Chong was there but didn't come along). I can confidently say that my horse was by far the best behaved, thank god because if you didn't know, horses don't have seatbelts so the safety issue was quite scary for me. Me, my roommate, and Manhattan lady (my nickname for her), were ready to do some trotting until Stephanie told us that unfortunately we could only have our horses walk, at a Very. Slow. Pace. Honestly, it was kind of painful to go that slow.

About an hour and a half in, we went to these benches and outdoor kitchen where we were given pancakes, sausage, eggs, juice, and coffee. COFFEE!!! It was the most magical part of the day. But this is where the entire trip got exciting. We had to tie up our horses and Stephanie's horse, Mango, had issues and it got caught in the rope and starting bucking and got loose. Yes, a huge horse got loose in the woods. The next thing I know, the horse is running towards our table where we were eating. We all didn't move because we didn't think it was real until Mango ran into another table (luckily it was empty), then we bolted from ours and watched the horse run around the kitchen and all over the place. I swear, that horse was on some sort of drug. As scary as it was, it was definitely the most entertaining part of the ride.

After breakfast, we continued on the trail for another 3 hours, seeing the beautiful view of one of the famous 14ers (14,000' mountain), Longs Peak and other scenic views of Estes Park. Towards the end of the ride, clouds were hovering over us and they weren't the most pleasant looking clouds. They were more like, if you don't get back soon, hell is about to break loose on you and your horse clouds. Luckily, we made it back to the ranch right before the rain started. But let me tell you, as soon as I got off that horse, my legs felt like I was still on it. I couldn't bend them, my butt hurt so much that I could barely sit down for the next three days.

Even though we couldn't trot and the ride was kind of boring, I loved my horse, I loved the people I was with and I loved the fact that I tried something new. I probably wouldn't do it again but it was a learning experience, and what did I learn? Four things:

1. Never ride Mango
2. Horses are sweet animals if you get a good horse.
3. You won't feel your ass for days after you ride a horse
4. I love breakfast

Cheech and I. We became best friends.