# 6 of Top 10 Most Embarrassing Life Moments

# 6 See You at the Round-Up

   My first year of college I attended Ricks, a junior college, now BYU Idaho. B., flaxen haired and blue-eyed B., sat next to me in Biology. We would flirt but he never asked me out. I took the initiative and asked him to the Sadie Hawkins. As an aside: Who was Sadie Hawkins, and why do we name girl ask boy dances after her? Was she an incredibly forward pioneer woman or something?

   B's room-mate, and the room-mate's girlfriend, D, wanted to double. D and I started making plans. We would take the guys to dinner first, then on to the dance. I got a call from D a couple days before. Instead of just taking them out to dinner, her room-mates suggested we go to a nearby dude ranch where we would ride horses out to a cabin, have a meal, then ride back. I didn't want to do it, and protested that we would smell like horses, but gave in to her enthusiasm.

   I knew there was a problem as soon as our guide started demonstrating how to saddle a horse.

  "Now some horses like to fill their lungs with air so it puffs them up. Once the straps are tightened he'll let the air out, causing the straps to be too loose. This horse is one of the worst. But you just smack him here," he smacked the horse with the flat of his hand, "and he'll release the air so you can tighten the straps."

   Guess which horse I was given....

  It got dark fast that night. Heavy cloud cover blacked out even the glow form the moon and stars. There we were, about thirty of us, plodding along in single file behind the guide. Pretty soon I began to sense that I was slipping to the side, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything. I could feel however, and I tried with all my might to maneuver myself and the saddle back to right side up, by squeezing with my legs to hold the saddle and rocking up toward the horses back.

   I will forever be grateful it was so dark; all my efforts were in vain. The saddle slid all the way around and I landed with a bump on a hillside.  I don't remember how I got the guides' attention, but eventually he halted the riders and came back to me with a flashlight.

  Finally at the cabin, we were just sitting down to dinner, (There wasn't anyplace to wash my hands first - ewww), when some smart aleck called out, "Hey, who fell off their horse?"
  
   D, ever helpful, yelled back, "It was Jami, she's right here!" Followed by uproarious laughter. Today, I can laugh about it in earnest, that night I faked it. I don't remember the dance, though I must have gone, I'm pretty sure there is photographic proof out there somewhere.