Exercising: Cowboy-Style

Today I exercised, walking to be exact. It's cheap to do, no special equipment needed, no gym memberships to pay for; its not too strenuous, you can do it with or with out friends, and you can even do it with cowboys, like I did with mine today.

It all started with a 3-year old with 30 or so rides on him and no he didn't buck on me, but he was going to and I wasn't up for it which disappointed my cowboy's plans of having me ride out with him to check fence on horseback. He said, trying to be sweet, "If you're really not feeling good, we can take the truck and check the north fence line in the field by the house. You can just come along for the ride. Bring a pup (we have 5 collie pups) and you can just stay in the truck and pet the dog."

Well, that all sounded to good to be true, which I, of course, didn't realize really would be too good to be true, until sometime later and, foolishly, I went along with the whole idea.

I was having a real nice time pointing out the missing staples with one hand while the other petted Glynnis (that's a Welsh name, meaning Little Valley, I read somewhere). My good dog, Blue, was lying on the passenger side floor at my feet with his head under the seat, his usual place.

My cowboy was telling me a wild cow story and he has the most annoying habit of looking right at me when he does that, even if he is driving, which he was. But one of us should have been looking where he was going.

Truck, post-pounder, cowboy, cowboy's wife, and two collies drove right into the soft edges around the slough and no amount of flinging mud forward or backward was going to get us out.

He turned the truck off and looking wistfully toward home says to me: "How far do you think it is to the house?" By then I was really wishing I'd stayed there and he could have just phoned me to come with the other truck and pull him out.

"3 miles" I grumbled as I stepped out into the mud with my slick-soled riding boots. Ya, walking: it's cheap exercise, no special equipment needed, and you can do it with a cowboy.