Once there were two friends. Richard had grown up on a farm and ranch, but wasn’t particularly joyous at the mention of riding horseback. He had never been too coordinated in all his fifty years. If the horse decided to buck him off, or kick him he was pretty much at their mercy. He decided early in life that he wasn’t cut out to be a cowboy.

Mike was only three years or so younger, but had grown up in a big city where the life of the cowboy was glorified. His heroes had always been cowboys, even though sometimes they drove a truck instead of rode horses.

"Let’s go catch the horses," Mike said, "we can go for a ride together."

"I don’t know," Richard protested, "it has been awhile since they have been rode."

"Oh," Mike countered, "they’ll be alright."

"Okay...," Richard hesitated, "it’s your neck."

They went to the barn where the tack was kept but could only find one bridle. Quickly it was decided that they would take turns on one horse since Richard still wasn’t too thrilled with the idea. They grabbed a saddle as well and headed back to the corral.

"It might be better this way because we can pick the gentler horse," Richard said still concerned with the idea that it had been some time since they were last rode.

They caught the gentler horse named Soapy and with Mike’s help boosting him up on they went to saddle up. Amazingly enough, Soapy was being very well behaved. They saddled up their gallant steed for the ride.

Mike was getting anxious to be a cowboy. He looked Richard in the eye with a pleading look and said, "Let me ride him."

"Be my guest," Richard replied.

Mike customarily wore blue-jean cutoffs during the summer. Gravity was always trying to pull them down. It was a never-ending battle that usually meant they just kinda stayed slid down.

Mike put his foot in the stirrup and hoisted himself up. Then while he was swinging his other leg over he discovered the cutoffs were riding too low for him to swing the other leg. He was committed at that point though to get the rest of the way on so he attempted to lie down on the saddle. When he did he just kind of slid off the other side and hit the ground with a thud.

Richard was standing well out of the way when Mike was mounting, and seeing the whole event he doubled over in laughter. Soapy stood perfectly still except for having a frown on his face and giving Mike the hairy-eye ball as if to say, "Hey Mike, you ain’t no cowboy."