Giddyap. This is Howard County's bumpiest sport.
"After the first lesson, you're really sore," said Patricia Perry of Ellicott City, "nothing a Jacuzzi and a bottle of wine couldn't cure."
Ms. Perry is one of the adult riders at the Columbia Horse Center off Gorman Road in Laurel, where 200 adults and children a week study horseback riding.
"It's something I wanted to do all my life," Ms. Perry said. So a year ago, she saddled up at the Columbia Horse Center, learning to trot, jump and canter.
Lessons go year-round, either in the two indoor rings or the two outdoor ones. Sixty horses live in the barn's stalls -- 30 school horses and 30 privately owned boarding horses.
Riders perform shows about once every month, either at the center or elsewhere in Howard County. Some riders become good enough to compete in the nation's top riding contests.
At a lesson this week, Ms. Perry and a half-dozen other riders gathered their horses in the center's primary indoor ring -- about the size of a skating rink -- to trot in the chilly evening air.
Occasional cries of discomfort rang out.
"Whoa! Whoa!" shouted Ms. Perry -- the only adult present at the lesson -- as she tried to slow her horse after a jump.
Riders here never like to fall. With each fall there's a price to pay. "Usually, I make them bring me cookies when they fall off," said Susan Wentzel, an instructor and manager of the center, after 13-year-old Lorabeth Atkinson tumbled from her horse.
"It's not unusual for people to take a tumble," Ms. Wentzel said. "We just request homemade cookies."
Riders also take care not to let their eyes stray toward the ground -- a downward glance costs a quarter. "It takes lots of concentration and strength," said 13-year-old Mary Winterbottom of Laurel. "You can't do it unless you concentrate."
Every trot yields a bounce that riders might feel for a day or two after a lesson -- at least until they grow used to riding. But most don't seem to mind.
"It's different from anything else I've ever done," said Lorabeth, who recently made one of the center's show teams. "It's just a lot of fun."
Lorabeth was introduced to horseback riding through her Girl Scout troop three years ago.
The center, owned by the Columbia Association and managed by Equestrian Management Systems Inc. of Laurel, regularly offers tours for scouts and nursery schools. In addition to the group lessons, the center also gives private lessons and summer camps and plays host to the Maryland Therapeutic Horse Program, a program that uses horseback riding as an outlet for the disabled.
L Adults have found that it's never too late to learn to ride.
"We have as many adults as we do children," Ms. Wentzel said. "We have people who ride for shows, and we have people who ride strictly for pleasure."
Ms. Perry, who says she's part of the "thirty-something" generation trying to fulfill her childhood dream, said she has fallen in love with horseback riding.
9- "I don't think I'll ever stop," she said.