Feelin' sorry for myself with a big plate of cookies

I never thought this day would come. I sold one of my favorite horses today. If I drank, I would probably be drowning my sorrows in something to take away my sadness. But since I don't drink, I will have to settle for a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a big, ice cold Coke instead.

Lakota is the horse I learned to ride on. She belonged to some friends of ours, Rick and Lori Johnson, who have a cabin near ours above Park City. I knew nothing about horses, in fact I hated them, but Rick made me get on and ride her and I fell in love. It is almost magical to ride through the quakies with on a beautiful horse that you love. I wasn't a good rider, I just held one for dear life. Thank goodness Lakota was lazy and didn't like to go very fast! The day after one of our longest rides ever, I went to my gynacologist for my annual exam. I was horrified when she saw the inside of my thighs and said, "Nice bruises." I tried to convince her it was from trying to hang on to a horse, but I'm not sure if she believed me or not.

Then one day, I found out that her owner, Rick, was going to sell her one day and I cried and told my husband about it. He said, "Over my dead body we are going to get a horse!" At the time we lived in Salt Lake and had no where to keep her. Being the old softy that he is, my husband surprised me and gave Lakota to me for our 15th wedding anniversary. I was sooo.... excited! I drove up to Kaysville almost every day to ride her. When we moved her to a pasture closer to home, she foundered on the apples that surrounded her paddock. So we took her back up to Kaysville to recover.

Lakota is the reason I moved to Vernal. I wanted to have her in my yard and the only way I could do that was to move to the country. Last February, we finally moved into our new home that we spent a year and a half building next to the big blue barn and I had Lakota in my back yard. I started taking riding lessons with my eleven year old. As I got better at riding, I started riding my three year old paint who can spin and side step and do all kinds of amazing things and I discovered Lakota is actually a horrible ride! I really realized this when I rode our 29 year old in the mountains by our cabin and I didn't come back tired and worn out from having to kick her to move along. WOW! What an eye opener that was. But I loved Lakota, I couldn't get rid of her! Over the past few months as I have watched her kick at the other horses every day while six of them try to eat on one side of the feeder and she has the whole side to herself I started to realize she was really a pain and my three year old paint was starting to pick up her bad habits. So I decided it is time for her to go plus I needed the money.

This morning as I brushed out her long white mane, lunged her and took my last ride, the tears wouldn't stop coming. I loved this horse and I was so grateful to her for teaching me how to ride. She truely has taught me not to be afraid of things and to enjoy life. I have some many great memories with this horse. But my favorite days were when I would walk down to the end of the pasture to bring the horses in and I would just hop on her bare back with only a halter and lead rope on and ride her up to the gate as the rest of the horses followed.
There will always be a special place in my heart for Lakota - even in all of her sassiness - I still love her.

Here is the chocolate chip cookie recipe I made to drown my sorrows in. One of our old neighbors in Salt Lake, Keith Colson, used to make these. I have never been able to master making them as good as he could. I usually just pull out the frozen Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough from the freezer because they always turn out good.

Mr. C's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mix and set aside: 2 1/2 C. flour sifted, 1t. salt and 1t. baking soda.
Cream together by hand with a wooden spoon: 1C. Butter flavored Crisco, 3/4C. sugar, 3/4C. brown sugar, 2 eggs and 1t. hot water.

Add the dry mix to this and then add 2C. oatmeal, 1t. vanilla and 1 bag of milk chocolate chips.
Bake at 375* for 11 min.
Eat with a big glass of milk while they are still warm.

Cheers to Lakota!