Shining

[april]

It’s a perfect day for riding, with the air being just cool enough at this time of day to make the air pleasantly crisp, and the birds singing and the flowers opening. Shining crab-steps and toe dances, feeling just too good to hold herself in. I smile and stroke her neck lovingly, and she tosses her head and gives a joyous, bugling whinny. We go at a walk, trot, or light canter most of the time, but we come to an open meadow where it’s just too tempting for both of us to open up and have a great gallop. I barely have to think the signal before Shining goes into a gallop that I doubt a racecar could keep up with. I keep my hands light as it’s possible too, and my reward is feeling a grace in Shining’s movements that even a ballerina couldn’t match. This is what’s been bred into Shining for hundreds of centuries, running for the pure joy of it. And the trees zipping past us in a blur help complete the perfect picture of us riding weightless through the clouds. “I don’t know what there is in the next world girl, but it’s hard to believe it could be better than this.” She knickers her agreement, and I pull her up reluctantly. When her breathing returns to normal we take the scenic route home, through the fields and forests. I sing as we go “ride like the wind. Two spirits together. Being free, roaming wherever. The faster you go, the tighter I’ll hold you, across the fields and streams. You are always in my dreams.” Shining flicks her ears listening, and then stops suddenly. A herd of deer is less than 10 feet in front of us. We stop and watch them until they quietly move ahead, and I smile at the newborn fawns. I give Shining another petting as we head down the trails together.