I really like kids for several reasons.  The main reason is their unabashed honesty.  If something makes a grown-up uncomfortable, they will avoid discussing it.  If you press them, a man will lie to you and a woman will ignore you.  But a kid will walk straight up to you and offer their unsolicited perspective on the situation.  Usually their perspective is remarkably insightful.

My dad is very fond of throwing big wing-ding bashes on the ranch.  Usually we have two, one near Christmas and one near the fourth of July.  All of our many city friends and their friends are always invited, and we usually all have a good time.

Somehow it has always been my job during these functions to catch saddlehorses and give children and adults a taste of the West, however wild they want it to be.  Usually I would saddle my old semi-retired kid horse (much to his delight) and my horse.  While the older ones played Pony Express Rider on my kid horse, I would put kids on my horse and lead them around.  When we got down to the youngest kids, I would crawl on my horse and the kids would ride in front of me around the yard.  I got pretty good at giving the nickel tour of the yard.  (”Over there is the bike rack.  What?  Oh yes, I love pink bicycles!”)

One year this Native guy and his boy came out to one of the parties.  I don’t recall seeing Mrs. Native Guy, but she must have been Irish, because the boy had a thick unruly shock of bright red hair and a serious freckle problem.  He chose to ride in front of me in the saddle.

Someone handed him up to me, and we took off.  The first part of every ride I had to spend determining how comfortable each kid was, and then I would start the tour.  After a while though, I usually ran out of things to say, so then we would just do figure eights in silence.

We had gotten to that point in the ride when he asked me “So, are you a cowboy?”  I replied with a small smile that yes I was.

He turned his head to look up at me.  “Well, we’re Indians,” he said, and then turned back around.

I nearly fell off my horse.