"Freedom Riding

 

     I felt my heart thudding against my chest as I thought about what I was going to do. Maybe I shouldn't do this. I thought. But then I looked into the big brown eyes of that beautiful brown and white horse that I called Spot, and knew that I was going to do it--had to do it, despite what people had told me about it.

      I frowned at the thought of my former self, shy and too timid to try it. I was different now, ready and prepared, and filled with a strength that I didn't know. I looked back on a conversation I had, and laughed.

      "Have you ever ridden a horse bareback before?" I asked my teacher.

      "Yes I did, once. It was on a horse that was fully trained and capable to be ridden. But you should never ride one that isn't fully trained, or without the supervision of a grownup who knows how to handle horses." She stated.

     "Why not?" I asked, truly curious.

     "It can put you, the horse, and the people around you in danger. if the horse isn't ready for riders, then it might buck you off. You could crak you skull open like that, or you could brake an arm or a leg. Or the horse could go into frenzy and become crazy with rage."

     "Oh," I exclaimed. "I'll never ride one bareback." I decided.

     "I wouldn't say never to ride one, but make sure it's trained." She laughed.

     "I will." I declared. I looked around, coming back to reality. Spot had wandered away, so I had to call him back. I knew he was trained because I had seen his owner, John riding him the other day.

     I thought about John, he didn't know I was here in his barn, or that I was about to ride his horse bareback. I had thought about asking him, but I knew what he would say. I watched his house for a week, learned what he usually did, how long he stayed in his house at which times, when he left his house, and how long he was usually gone. He wasn't home right now; I only had a couple minutes.

     Thinking about that, I realized he could be home at any second. I had to do this now and get out before he caught me. I moved the horse parallel to the fence, and then climbed up the fence. I hesitated just before climbing onto Spot. But then I heard a truck door slam, it sounded just outside the barn. I was out of time. I swung myleg over his back, got on and rode bareback. It only lasted a few seconds, I got a couple of feet in before I knew that I had to stop or else get into deep trouble. I stopped the horse by barely pulling back on his neck, hoping that he would stop. Spot stopped. I hastily tried to get back on the fence, but it was harder to get off then I thought it would be. It took me a full thirty seconds to get a good foothold on the fence and scramble over it. I turned around and gave spot a quick hug around his neck, and then squatted down out of sight of the barn door. I knew that if John came into the barn taht I would be dead meat, so I prayed that he would go into his house instead. After a minute, I heard the screen door slam, which meant he had gone inside. I felt deeply relieved.

     I got up; spot had gone into the field. I decided that that would be the best way to get the heck out of there. I climbed back over the fence and went out into the field. I went to  the side of the barn that wasn't facing the house and climbed over the fence and walked the ten feet to the road. I made myself walk home as if nothing had happened, instead of runnign home like I felt like doing.

     Nobody ever knew what happened that day except me, and now you. I guess I was lucky I didn't get caught or hurt, but I'm glad I did it. because if I hadn't, I would have never known the strength or power of a horse without a blanket or saddle to hide the feelinhg of freedom and happiness. I had been freedom riding.

Author's Note

ignore all the errors and just tell me what your honest opinion is.

Reviews

[Titus McGuire]

I feel this piece was well written, though there is room for improvement. There are some spelling and grammerical errors (I know, I was supposed to ignore those, but still I thought I'd mention them), but I feel that you could expand with this piece. It's a great concept, but I feel you could add more detail and elaborate on the story, building more on what you have. That's just my opinion, though. Anyways, I feel you have a great story here, a personal experience from the narrator's point of view (I love first person point of view, most of my writing is first person), I'm just suggesting that you take this piece and add more to it, make it longer, give more details.

Overall it was a good read. Bravo.