As The World Turns

"In the far and mighty West
Where the crimson sun seeks rest,
There's a growing splendid State that lies above,
On the breast of this great land;
Where the massive Rockies stand,
There's Wyoming young and strong, the State I love!"
-Wyoming State Song

Two days before 4th of July, Stan decided it would be a great idea to throw a bunch of at-risk teenagers (most of which had only ridden for one day of their lives) onto half-tame, barely trailer-trained mustang/arabian horses and put them all into the blistering hot Lander 4th of July Parade complete with hoards of children running amok and spraying fire hoses - yeeeeeehaw!! Being the thoughtful (*cough*: scared to death) and service-oriented person I am (*cough*: not insane), I look it upon myself to drive the truck with Stan so he would be able to come along and all the others could participate in the riding crazy horses in the city streets part.

On 4th of July, I got up at 5am - which was when everyone said they had wanted to get up - and spent the next hour and a half being a highly caffeinated human snooze button. We had to be at the parade - 30 minutes away - by 8:30am. Everyone started casually rolling out of bed at 6:30am and were outside to start trailering 11 horses by 7:30am. Using various tools (corral fence posts, large sticks, lead ropes, trailer doors, strong strapping men and one with a bunch of broken ribs) we finally trailered all the horses by 8:10am. Only two of the horses reared inside the trailer and tried bashing their brains in. We made it to the parade slightly late, but then again, nothing much was going on at that point, so we ended up with plenty of time to saddle horses, paint horses, and decorate the pickup truck with blankets, posters, and fancily dressed young Indian girls armed with giant bags of candy.

The parade was the biggest one I have ever seen! It took 2 hot, sweaty hours to make it down 10 city blocks, and man, they do parades differently in The Great West - everything here but particularly parenting out here is a huge contrast to Boulder, Colorado parenting/hovering. I'm pretty sure parents weren't even on the same block as their 2 and 3 year-olds as I spent most of my time peering out from blankets hanging over the window and windshield, dodging tiny children playing in the spray from the firetruck in front of us and viewing the 10-foot space between us and them as a mobile crosswalk. Apparently, to the horror of some of our riders, several ran right up to our horses thinking they were as tame and friendly as fairground ponies. The firefighters thought they were being merciful in the heat of the day by spraying their firehoses at the horses, but let me tell you, these horses typically spook when you start filling their water troughs up with a garden hose!

At the end of the day, everyone was hot, sweaty, and happy, the paint was running off of the horses, and the horses went onto the trailer much more readily than they had in the morning. 4th of July is quite a popular celebration out here - fireworks are available most of the year and isn't it precious how even the youngest of children hold them with their bare hands as they stand out in the middle of the dark streets in their own homemade fireworks arsenal, ahem, I mean, display?? That being said, we celebrated with a giant BBQ complete with steaks cooked on a charcoal grill that had been preheated in 1 minute flat with a giant blow torch - man, living where there are no laws, or at least no one to enforce them, totally rocks! The celebratory night ended with every square inch of Lander being lit up by giant, stadium-style fireworks!