Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg Hunt at Kristi’s Lame Dog Ranch. April 23, 2011

I missed the hunt last year and have been looking forward to this year’s event. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Saturday morning and it was snowing. Well in Colorado we like to joke about how fast our weather can turn and I knew that we had a strong chance of sunny skies later in the day. We drive the few miles to my neighbor’s house, unload and saddle up. I can tell immediately that no one is in a big rush, we do indeed have “all the time we need.” So Lakota and I join the group in the large arena and warm up by walking and trotting around and visiting with those folks that I know and meeting some that I do not. The weather is cool but no longer snowing and the sun looks like it might show its face any time now.

Almost an hour after the advertised start time, we are called over to hear the official rules.

1) Horsemanship is paramount and anyone who lacks it will be quickly disqualified.

    You must treat everyone cordially and keep you and your horse safe at all times.

2) You can only bring in one egg at a time. When you find an egg, you must ride back in, dismount, and wait in line to walk your egg into the round pen and drop it in your basket.

3) Only one horse in the round pen at a time.

4) Kristi tells where to hunt as well what areas are off limits.

The rules are simple.  Kristi told us that there are colored plastic eggs with prizes inside, there are also three painted rocks that will win you a special prize, but mostly there are three hundred  4-inch sections of painted PVC pipe that have been scattered around a bunch of pastures totaling about sixty acres !!  Whoooeee!!

Everyone puts their Easter basket in the 60 foot round pen, and for those who forgot there are brown bags you can put your name on. Mine is the plastic orange pumpkin I use for Halloween candy and it is easy to find. We mount up and Kristi does a quick count down and off we go. 

It seems as if a lot of folks are heading towards the many pastures to the south, so we head north. I don’t have to go very far down the lane before I see an orange plastic egg nestled into a large stack of hay. Score! I don’t even have to get off if she will side-pass up to the hay bales and let me pluck it off. She does and back we ride to the round pen. I am the one grinning. There is a big crowd there, many found eggs right off the bat.  I dismount and wait in line. Everyone is having fun and I can tell I am not the only one in touch with my inner child. Did I mention that most of the riders are well over thirty? There are only a handful of young riders, all female ~ they are the ones that are wearing only t-shirts against the cool April morning. 

Lakota and I jog into the round pen, drop our first egg into our basket and jog out so the next person can go in. I guide her over to the fence and climb it to get back into the saddle. It is much easier on her back and my knees to mount in this manner, besides most of the eggs are going to be on the ground, there is going to be enough getting on and off to cost me several Tylenol’s I am sure.

Now here is where it gets really interesting. Lakota and I do not get to ride alone very often out in large wide open pastures. She isn’t too sure of herself and I suddenly realize what a great experience this is for us as a team building exercise. When she is unsure about something I am there to help her understand what I would like for us to accomplish. We dialog ~ it is a communication  ~ more than usual because she is out of her comfort zone. She would much rather hang out with all the other horses just looking pretty. It is just me and her and the dialogs are many. I ask her if she is looking for Easter eggs and she says no. She stops walking, her muscles are tense. She doesn’t understand why we are doing this and asks me over and over if we have to keep going. I remind her that I spend hours and hours working to keep her in good food and comfortable pastures, that we have only been riding for fifteen minutes and I, for one, am still having fun.

Then for awhile she gets excited and I assume that she thinks that if she picks up the speed we will get done faster and that will be the end of this silly exercise. No, that won’t work you see because I cannot spot the little eggs at 25 miles an hour. So the dialog continues. We ride alone, just the two of us; she heads toward some really boggy ground. I am not sure what the attraction is but we explore it for a while. She sees the mini donkeys on the neighboring farm and we go meet them. Does she think that they are her herd mates even after she looks them over? Do all donkeys smell alike?

I don’t have a care in the world about winning the prize for the most eggs found, in fact we actually quit long before the men and the teenagers, but I am profoundly happy to have this chance to ride with my horse in this hunt for silly colored plastic tubes.

The sun came out in short little teases, and then the cool wind stole away any warmth we had accumulated. It took less than two hours for even the most determined riders to call it quits. We gathered around a picnic table laden with pot luck items and counted up the points and handed out prizes. For our two colored Easter eggs, Lakota and I won a carton of farm fresh eggs ~ the fun green and brown ones, a gift certificate to the local feed store and accumulated 170 points.  A swell day was had by all and the food looks delicious. Life is good.