Power Multiplied

Rides and Oceans

This image is of a horseback ride I recently took on the misty Playa Hermosa's beautiful beach just up the road from Uvita, where I live. Shannon, the protagonist of the Power Rising series, hasn't gone horse riding, although she has experienced an unexpected ride on the back of a beluga whale, and several much less welcome rides in the clawed clutches of pantherdragons. She doesn't ride her friend Roebor, precisely because he is her friend, although she did receive some assistance by holding on to the fur of his side as they passed through the vast expanse of atomic nothingness one time. Horses are interesting creatures--so large, so beautiful, and often so gentle. They could shake us off and trample the very life out of us if they wished to, and yet they don't. I wonder why. Has it been beaten out of them? Do they not mind us so much? Are they fond of our silly little race? Some of each? The horses we rode didn't wear bits, so at least their mouths were more comfortable. And when we got down to the beach, some of them just couldn't hold back: they raced like the very wind down the sand at the edge of the water. It was beautiful to see. For those moments they were truly free.