Near Opportunity

At the beginning of this year, I was invited to be part of a Pa'u unit representing the island of Maui for the Aloha Week Festivals parade. I accepted the invitation mostly because it meant that I would be able to ride a horse, and partially because I thought it'd be a great new experience.

A float representing King Kamehameha and his Court

I'd always dreamed of having my own horse when I was young. And although we did have a Shetland pony when I was about 6, I never really got to ride much. So, needless to say, I was more than excited about "having" to practice riding. I even bought myself some cowboy boots!

Yep, these very ones.

Over the months we went to Uncle Harry's ranch to get matched to our horses--I got Hoku--and practice riding. The horses we rode are trained for parade riding only, so they were very mild mannered and, for the most part, easy to ride. I did have a couple of panicky moments, however, when Hoku decided that she wanted to test me out and would suddenly take off galloping. But overall, I was in horse heaven!!! I even enjoyed the saddling up, unsaddling, and washing of the horses. Anything to be close to the them.

We did fundraising--selling cookies and putting on a luau; learned to wrap a pa'u skirt (there's much more to it than you'd ever guess), prepared our outfits, and planned our pooper scooper bin design.

Now the parade is nearly here--Saturday, September 13th. And unfortunately, we won't be riding. Our princess (and group leader) is unable to leave Seattle where she is caring for her terminally ill mother. I'm disappointed that I won't have this experience this year; but maybe next year we'll be able to ride. And I'll be able to be one of these regally beautiful women in the parade:

The Princess

Her two Attendants (my position)