After lunch, it's time to practise our saddle-stitching: sewing both sides of a seam at once.
We did two descents, the second involving a sudden de tour through a forest that ended in a jump so extreme we were still bouncing up and down in our saddles 100 yards after touchdown.
Sooner than we expected, Skip summoned us to our saddles with a sharp, "Let's do it," and we rode south, through the pass known as Crooks Gap, along the northern edge of the Red Desert and then west toward Lost Creek Reservoir, our first camp site.
Woodall has commented: "They're really designed so that our black coat will give you a waist, our trousers will hide your saddle bags, our cashmere makes your tits look great".
The counselors know their importance; it is their futility they will learn: All those years we spent jubilant, seeing the trifling, cowering world from the height of our shining saddles, brawling our might across the earth as we forged an empire, I never questioned.
Saying goodbye to the friendly owner, leaving behind the cakes and soups and sandwiches, stepping back into the rain, throwing our legs over our sodden saddles, to face the prospect of climbing up Winsford Hill and across Exmoor, was not a happy moment.
Related: Our lesson "Saddled with Praise".
In their 2012 budget, they propose cutting nutrition programs as part of austerity measures so that we don't leave our children saddled with debt.
So we put on our shades, saddled up the ol' Camry, fired up a little Harry Potter 4 on the stereo, and lit out for Montreal, a mere 6 1/2 hours from Manhattan.
By excluding same-sex couples from marriage, our state saddles them, their children and itself with second-class status.
