Never been horse riding (although I'd like to give it a whirl).

Skiing however is fantastic. Great fun.

Not sure that whirling and riding go together. Although some rodeo buckers do go round and round in a circle. Is that what you meant ?

Yee - hah !

I used to LOVE to ski. Until one day after Christmas when I was 17...
The slopes were quite icy because we had gotten some sleet. They were also PACKED! And on the particular mountain we would go to, 3 main trails all merged into one large area. But even though it was a large area, it was also very congested. Well, I was working my way through the crowd, going at a reasonable clip, but not out of control, when all of a sudden this guy came barrelling through and ran across the tips of my skis.

It set me off balance enough that I ended up crossing my tips and therefore managed to launch myself into the air going forward and I did a 3/4 forward flip and managed to plant the backs of my skis in the snow....in a split eagle! And after they were planted, I ended up sliding at least another 15 feet in that position.

I ripped my bib-overalls from belly button to butt crack and come to find out I severely strained my "bits and pieces"! My nephew was with me and was laughing his butt off, but knew I was hurt. But he couldn't help it. I know I probably would have laughed too if it had happened to him, because I'm sure it looked absurd.

I got my skis back on and managed to get to the bottom of the hill (after falling about 20 times on the way down - shoulda just called for the ski patrol!) Then I went in the lodge and cried for the rest of the afternoon! I hurt myself badly enough that I had to skip the first few weeks of Softball practice...in MARCH! Took me that long to heal!

I haven't had a chance to get back on the slopes since then. My hubby refuses to even try downhill because he has a bad knee from a soccer injury. And with my back now, it probably wouldn't be that great of an idea. But I do miss the rush. And the smell of the snow. I particularly love night sking. So much fun!

Now I know why I've never been keen on the idea of skiing. I have fallen off ponies more than once, but I always bounced.

I slid off the back of one once, after getting a jump a bit wrong. I landed it, but then bouncerd out of the saddle and fell off the rear end.

Not dignified...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I've only been on a horse once in my life. Girl Scout trip to National Center West when I was about 14, we took a trail ride. The horses were supposed to walk the whole time, but mine kept deliberately slowing down so he could trot to catch up. Trotting is rather interesting for a green rider who doesn't know how to post.

I've never had any desire to downhill ski (despite having been offered lessons once), and have only been cross country skiing once. The one steep hill, I ended up going down on my bum.

But then I've never been good at any sport requiring large muscle coordination. Apparently my fine motor control is much better than my large, so I'm good at things like ping pong and badminton (all in the wrist) and cake decorating, but lousy at most sports (I got picked for kick ball right before the kid with cerebral palsy).



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

i've only been on a horse once (for about 2 minutes) but i did a 3 hour camel trip in egypt last year. (i was sooore)

and i tried skiing for about 2 hours a few years ago... i wasn't very good at it, but that could have been coz i have no balance whatsoever.

I love riding in Western saddles. Soooo comfy and secure. I hardly even noticed when the pony I was riding went from a trot to a canter and gave a couple of bucks.
I really want to go on a riding holiday in Spain and ride Andulucians, those beautiful Spanish horses with long wavy manes and tails that get used a lot for movie stunt work. They were often used for the leading characters in spaghetti westerns (which were mostly filmed in Spain, of course). Look at the horse ridden by Clint in 'Good, Bad, Ugly', and you'll know what I mean.