That was a big weekend.

Last year, the road trip with my niece was cut short when she got a bit sick. High on her list of things she wanted to do last year was horseback riding, but the first day she was sick was the day we were planning on riding. Yesterday was the makeup day; we drove up to the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park to a modest stable and went riding. She's at the age when I stopped riding horses extensively, but has only a tiny bit of experience with the beasts.

I don't ride horses much, but still like to hop on one now and then and it's a bit like riding a bike. You never really forget the basics and it's a distinctly familiar thing. Both our borrowed horses were eager to take advantage of tourists, stopping without permission to browse the trailside foliage (I joked with our guide that my horse was insisting he hadn't been fed today). For me, it was a minor annoyance since I know how to rein a horse, but my poor niece struggled with her mount's unwillingness to move along and stop munching. It takes time to learn how much you can use the reins and bit to control the animal's head and she naturally feared being too rough.

Still, despite that minor hassle and despite the fact that you can no longer find a stable where they will let guests run horses, it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. We even topped it off with a visit to Boulder for pizza and a brief stop after for an alpine slide run. Boy, I'm bushed from this weekend.

CDs listened to today:

• Colin Matthews: Sonata No. 4 For Orchestra
• Lou Reed: New York
• Emma Lou Diemer: Concerto In One Movement For Piano