{"id":1342,"date":"2011-08-12T14:31:42","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T21:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2022-05-31T12:28:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T19:28:03","slug":"no-city-slicker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=1342","title":{"rendered":"No City Slicker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Truchas Lake seen from Truchas Peak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maybe I shouldn\u2019t have identified myself as an English teacher.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m referring to our guides on the Pecos trip. First, they tell me my horse is the one they put six-year-olds on. Then, I\u2019m told I can\u2019t adjust the stirrups or tighten the cinch myself. Finally, I\u2019m asked to stand on a stump to mount.<\/p>\n

All in the first five minutes.<\/p>\n

Give me a break. I\u2019m no cowboy. Never claimed to be. I don\u2019t rope, don\u2019t climb on bucking broncs (intentionally, that is) and don\u2019t look good in a Stetson.<\/p>\n

But–trip name not withstanding\u2014I\u2019m no city slicker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teenage me would have done something really stupid. Like spurring the horse to a gallop and attempting some impressive turns and stops. If I had, pretty sure I would have either fallen off the horse or got kicked off the ride.<\/p>\n

So the older me decided to just go with it and try to gain some respect along the way. And maybe give some as well.<\/p>\n

After all, I\u2019m thinking, the guides probably had an English teacher who looked at their boots and jeans and said \u201cclimb on the stump\u201d (i.e. \u201cwe\u2019ll start simple since you obviously can\u2019t read or write\u201d).<\/p>\n

So I did what I do with my students. Looked for opportunities to draw them out and appreciate their accomplishments. Wasn\u2019t hard. Huie, the head guide, graduated from New Mexico State with an agricultural science degree. His conversations about cloning and such convinced me this cowboy could be a successful professor. He has the mind for it (I told him as much).<\/p>\n

And Emily, Huie\u2019s niece, once was competitive jumping horses. Plus she uses the off-season to train to be a nurse.<\/p>\n

Not sure if they changed their view of me.<\/p>\n

But there was the day we rode six miles to Truchas Lakes. While the others rested, I climbed Truchas Peak (second highest in New Mexico). Did the 1500\u2019 ascent in about 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey English teacher,\u201d said Huie, late that afternoon when we had unsaddled and were walking back to camp. \u201cHow do you feel?”<\/p>\n

\u201cTired and hungry; what\u2019s for dinner?”<\/p>\n

His grin said it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe I shouldn\u2019t have identified myself as an English teacher. I\u2019m referring to our guides on the Pecos trip. First, they tell me my horse is the one they put six-year-olds on. Then, I\u2019m told I can\u2019t adjust the stirrups or tighten the cinch myself. Finally, I\u2019m asked to stand on a stump to mount. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3286,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/3286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}