City Boy Rides His First
Horse
By Jon Tannen
I live in Manhattan, right in the middle of all those tall towers with nowhere
to breathe. Recently, when Janet invited me to her Rancho Del Castillo in
Winter Haven to witness firsthand how she trains her horses, I jumped at the
opportunity. After all, there's plenty of breathing space in Central Florida.
Shortly after I arrived, Janet asked me (or did she CHALLENGE me, the "City
Boy?") to ride one of her horses. Since riding a horse has been an ambition
of mine for a long time, I gladly said "Yes." But I tactfully asked
her NOT to put me on any horse whose nickname was "Angry Al" or Mischievous
Mel." After she assured me this wouldn't be the case (and she set me up with
a helmet) I was led out to meet a calm teenager named Mulliken Stu, whose
nickname could've been "Sad Sam" or "Quiet Carl". What a thrill! It was my
first time on a real horse, as opposed to the plastic ones I sat on at the
Central Park merry-go-round when I was a kid.
A hundred questions crossed my mind. "How do I hoist myself on top of Mulliken
into the saddle?" "Okay, I've got the reins in one hand. What do I do with
my other hand?" "If I hold onto the hair above his neck, won't that hurt him?"
I rode Mulliken for about a hundred yards under the careful supervision of
Janet and her friend Lois. We walked really. I merely sat atop him and kept
my balance as they led him around a small pen. At first, I admit I was a bit
uncomfortable and had visions of Christopher Reeve. But after a while I felt
better and soon yelled in my best John Wayne imitation: "Take'em tuhh Missouri,
Pil-grim!"
At the end of my ride (as an imaginary finish line approached?) I hunched
down a bit in the saddle, trying to "push" Mulliken's head forward with each
stride like professional jockeys do down the stretch. I imagined racecaller
Dave Johnson's famous play-by-play of the stretch drive of the 1989 Preakness,
my favorite race of all time:
"... IT'S EASY GOER ON THE INSIDE! SUNDAY SILENCE ON THE OUTSIDE! NOSES
APART! HEEEEEEERE'S THE WIRE........."
Since, in my mind, I was Pat Day
atop my favorite horse of all time, Easy Goer, I lost the photo. Damn! Had
I not stumbled out of the gate, would I have won? Why did I move so early?
Coulda... shoulda... woulda... we'll never know.
My short ride on Mulliken gave me a greater appreciation of the things
jockeys go through. The dangers. The risks. And the athletic skills needed
to pilot a thousand pound animal forty miles per hour. It may LOOK easy,
but I'm sure it's not.
My dismount wasn't quite Angel Cordero-esque. That is, it wasn't acrobatic
and done with flair. But Janet and Lois still complimented me on my form.
As I walked off, nobody asked me for an autograph. But then, no cigar-chomping,
beer-burping moron told me I was a bum either.
Jon Tannen
jtannen@yahoo.com