It was a sunny afternoon and against my mother’s rules, my sister and I decided to go on a horse race. We could do that fairly easily, as we lived on a ranch and our horses were available practically anytime we wanted them.

Riding our horses was okay. Racing them was not, well not for the little 8 year old me. Safety always came first. But, safe was boring and I really wanted to race. Plus, my mother was gone that day so she’d never know.

We saddled up our horses and led them out to our pretend race track. My sister’s friend may have been there too, but I was only 8, so my memory fails me now. Actually half of this story may be different than how others recall, but it’s how I remember it, so I’m sticking to it.

Back to the race. We climbed onto our saddles, my sister on her horse and me on mine. Well, mine was a pony. Now that I look back, the odds were not in my favor.

Three…Two…One! We took off. The race was going great! My sister flew around the track like lightening and I followed right behind her, for a moment. I was on a pony after all. However, my pony did have some good energy and I sure felt like I was flying.

Then I really did fly. My pony got spooked, reared up, and I went flying, landing in the dirt below. I bit the dust, a lot of it. A whole mouthful. But, that wasn’t going to keep me down.

I stood up, spit the dirt out of my mouth, and dug some of it out too. It was pretty crammed in there. Then, looked up at that disobedient pony with a stern expression and jumped right back on her. At that point, I wasn’t going to win the race, but I was determined to finish it, and finish it we did.

Moral of the story – No matter how hard you fall, get back up and finish the race.

Also, dirt should not be a food choice. If you’re going to go natural, I’d recommend a salad instead.

This post is a part of SoCS, hosted by LindaGHill.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “bat, bet, bit, bot, but.” Focus on one, use them all, or simply include one of these words in your post. It’s up to you!

“Typing my heart out” for Nano Poblano/NaBloPoMo.