dilemna

I have a dilemna.
For 240 pesos, roughly $80 CDN - I can take a Polo lesson.
It's not really the money that is making me hesitate.

It's the fact that when I get there, and there are real life polo fields and polo horses, facing my one chance to play polo in Argentina, I'll think back to all the horses I've ridden - the ponies that used to run me under branches, or the one that would jump *in* to the In-and-Out but go no further (although i frequently did), or the off-the-track racehorses that would take off on my 13 year old self, or my first horse show when the horse stepped on my foot and I cried, and then cried because I was crying AT MY FIRST HORSESHOW (I was eight).

I'll remember all of these incidents as signs of my unique bond with horses.
I will completely ignore the fact that I haven't ridden consistently in something like 15 years, and when asked about my experience will consolidate my hazy horsey memories into a statement like "Oh yes I ride. hmmm? Pretty well. Pretty well, I'd say. Certainly Not Bad."

I know this because approximately 10 years ago I was in Hungary, in not dissimilar circumstances and THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I SAID. A short while later this horse is making its bid for freedom while I, stirrups lost, reins and mane gripped together, pray that there are no groundhogs in Hungary as we dash across the great plains.

Of course, none of this would really be a problem EXCEPT I've got four months of skiing coming up. And the only thing worse than injuring yourself on the first day of skiing is injuring yourself two weeks before the first day.

But.... com'on. It's Argentina!!! It's POLO. NO ONE is that strong.