Recreation

Recreation – The good people of Prince Albert were always trying to do their best for their country, and they would invite the pupils to go here and there. While attending a festival dinner at one of the churches, one of the ladies remembered me saying that I loved to ride horses. I never thought that the young housewife, who was, also, a local equestrienne, would turn up the next Saturday morning at the Station without first telephoning and ask me if I would like to go horse-back riding.

We drove to the local equestrian emporium. When we went in to check her mount I cornered the groom and pleaded, “Look, I haven’t been on a horse for some time. Do you have a reasonably gentle steed?” The groom brought out a gelding and I took one look at its eagle glare and I knew that the morning was going to be a different one. Mrs. T----- stepped up into the stirrup with the grace accumulated by much ability and practice. My horse and I circled a few times while I was fighting to get my other leg over the saddle. Off Mrs.T----- and I went onto the horse paths in and about Prince Albert. On the way back, the bloody gelding knew where the sun was. It grabbed the bit and we commenced our flight back to the stables. John Gilpin had nothing on me as the damn horse flew over the paths and made the correct turns. We came through the stable door with me flat out on the back of the animal and we stopped abruptly facing the oats in the stall. The groom strolled in and said, “How did you like the horse, Sir? Did he throw ya?” Just then Mrs. T----- and her steed cantered up the road and when she got to where the groom and I were about to have a scuffle, I said, “Oh, I’m sorry Mrs. T-----, I guess you didn’t hear me say that we’d have a race to the entrance of the club.

With the invitation to go riding again before I left Prince Albert I was established with a fair number of reasons why not to go.