Biking after church could get to be a habit. A good one. Last Sunday we returned to the West Orange Trail, this time heading east. (You may recall that the Sunday before we had gone westward.) We made a late start, having become involved in a good conversation at church. But it didn't matter—we'd already decided that a little sunscreen would be in order.
We biked nearly 20 miles, round trip, saving the remainder of that leg of the trail for another time. In general this direction was not as pleasant as the previous week's trip—it took a while to get out of the industrial area and into the shade. But all trails are interesting if they're new to you, so it was a great ride. Along the way we discovered something else new: the Clarcona Horseman's Park, and we stopped long enough to watch some young girls and their horses being judged in a show. What was especially interesting to me was the names of the various gaits. The riders were asked to walk, jog, and lope their horses. Back when I was a horse-crazy young girl, I knew of four gaits; walk, trot, canter, and gallop. When did they change?
And something else has changed. At the risk of sex stereotyping here, it seems that the horse-craze is mostly a female phenomenon; the male equivalent, perhaps, is cars. But what happened before automobiles? I think it was the men and boys who were entranced by all things equine. I wonder why the switch? Perhaps men are just interested in going places, and like best whatever is the fastest means of transport they can reasonably expect to get their hands on. End of gender-biased rambling.
