...and Fall face first

As mother put the finishing touches on placing the saddle on Rakka, she took one last look to make sure everything was in place and that every buckle was secured. It only took her about a minute of inspection for her to nod, satisfied at the saddle's placement.

"Alright now that's everything in place, try to mount him Silvia", my mother instructed

[Have you ever rode a horse?], Voxea quipped in my head.

[No, but I've seen other people do it].

[Oh no...].

What followed was a solid fifteen minutes of me failing to mount Rakka. I did everything from jumping onto the saddle, overstretching my legs and me wriggling to the top...and then falling face first into the snow because I couldn't rotate on my gut correctly.

[I think you should ask your mother for help].

"Need some help?", mother asked with amusement in her voice and eyes.

[Or she just prompts to help herself, that works too].

"I...yes, yes I do". I was going to protest, but I was tired of flopping around like a fish and I can only fall off a saddle a certain amount of times before I began to bleed or crack my skull open.

[Or lose braincells].

[What's a brain cell]?

[Don't worry about it].

"Alright Silvia", my mother began to instruct, "Your first step, is to have Rakka sit down".

"..."

[Hindsight sucks right]?

At the realization of such an obvious solution being pointed out to me, I couldn't help but to smack myself in the forehead. In the name of fairness though, I was trying to mimic more experienced horse riders from the village.

I quickly commanded Rakka to sit down as my mother instructed and watched as the overly high saddle I was struggling to climb onto for the past fifteen minutes suddenly became eye level. It was still pretty tall, but now I could get on it without falling as high up.

"Now place your left foot into the stir-up in front of you and push yourself up. Once both of your feet are off the ground, throw your other leg over the saddle and place it in the opposite stir-up. Simple as that", my mother said with a smile.

I nodded at her words and proceeded to do what was hopefully a final attempt at mounting Rakka.

Doing as she instructed, I supported my weight on Rakka's bulky frame and pushed myself off the ground using my left foot inside the stir-up. Using the momentum from the push-up, I managed to swing my other leg over the saddle and into the other stir-up.

"Success", I shouted as I rose my arms up into the air as a minor form of celebration. I almost lost my balance as a result, but managed to correct myself by grabbing onto Rakka's neck before I fell into the snow, again.

"Good job Silvia. Now try holding the reins and ride Rakka once around to get used to being on his back".

"Okay", I replied as I sat up and grabbed hold of Rakka's new reins.

I mentally nudged Rakka to walk around the front yard in a circle slowly as I found my center of balance. It started off a little wobbly, but eventually I managed to find the rhythm of the saddle and stabilize myself while on Rakka's back.

As I got used to the swaying, I decided to push it a bit and have Rakka speed up.

Unfortunately I wasn't very specific in my directions, leading to Rakka just bolting in a straight line and me falling off the saddle and doing a backflip into the snow.

I didn't pass out, but I did have to enjoy the lovely sound of my mother and Voxea laughing at my predicament.