WHEN DO YOU BECOME TOO OLD TO RIDE?

By: Ron Mc Coy

WHEN DO YOU BECOME TOO OLD TO RIDE?

A couple of years ago I was going to one of those really great Indiana Trail Riders weekends down at Brown county State park. I always tried to go down early on Friday to get an extra ride in before my wife Karen and daughter Sara showed up either late Friday or Saturday morning. I had pulled in about Ten AM on a site that was along the road. While setting up camp, four couples pulled in on the opposite side of my camp. Looked to me that they might have been on the road a while as they staggered out of their rigs and were quite stiff as they got around to their chores of setting up camp. These folks, bless their hearts, were as old as dirt and probability older than most of the rocks lying around. After a couple hours of chiding each other about this and that they decided to go for a ride. I watched with great fascination as two of the men took Mabel to a picnic bench then helped her onto the bench while a third person held Mabel’s horse. Once on Mabel was very much in charge of a very nice looking Black Walking horse. So they went, one after the other to the picnic bench onto the horse. As they rode off they were still giving each other a hard way to go about this and that. Their spirit was certainly infectious.

Along about dark here they came back very much in high spirits. They piled off their horses and the women began getting a great dinner going while the men took care of the horses. From where I was the steaks and all the trimmings looked mighty tempting. I think I even saw a little liquid refreshment on the picnic bench. Again they were kidding each other and I was struck with the realization how much they were enjoying each others company, the spirit of the day and riding their horses together.

Saturday morning they began to stir about and a big breakfast was in the making. Soon the dishes were cleaned up and the horses saddled. The getting on part went about the same. More ribaldry but with lunches packed and some stiffness relieved after a night of rest their spirits were higher than ever. Off they went.

I went about my day with the ITRA with a renewed enthusiasm but was very curious about my camping neighbors. Well late afternoon here they came. The horses were sweated up and they looked like they had covered some ground. They all soon started on their various chores. I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to go down and talk with one of them. I found one fella brushing down a horse and asked him how the ride had gone. He said great and that they had ridden pretty much on the west side of the camp ground. Up B trail and out to C, that’s quite a ride in itself I was thinking. He went on to say they stopped for an hour for lunch. This may have been the picnic benches at B and 13 trails. I had to ask about getting back on their horses to which he laughed and said they weren’t quite as agile as they once were. Mabel had a hip replacement and the others had one kind of aliment or another. He admitted that only one of them could actually mount a horse from the ground. They just look for picnic benches, high ground and stumps. For many years they had been riding together and rode fairly frequently.
What I got out of this was that they still rode, even with advanced age. This group of folks certainly weren’t giving up riding just because they had become “old” in numbers. I’ll admit it also takes a good reliable horse and there is safety in numbers. They looked out for each other, kidded each other almost constantly and were enjoying life to the fullest. I feel they are still out there and hopefully are.

I’ll admit that as I have become older that I schedule my rides with others and only ride by myself on trails that I’ve been specific about before leaving with my wife Karen. I also carry a cell phone, with the understanding that cell phones don’t always work. Riding with friends, camping out with them and enjoying life, is the adventure that it was meant to be.

Ron
rksmccoy@earthlink.net

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