The other weekend I was sailing on the lake with a friend when we came upon a huge raft of Seagulls floating in the middle of the lake.   As we sailed through the raft, the gulls separated until all the gulls but one were on one side of the boat.  "Yeeha!" I shouted, "now that's how you cut um from the herd." My friend looked at me as if I had grown a set of horns and I realized I needed to explain. 
 
Opposites attract. True in science and true in love.  Sweet Jane, love of my life, dew drop of my desire and pumpkin of my pleasure, is kind of shy while I tend to be a bit more gregarious.  She has the patience of Job while I am more of the git' er done or git out of the way type.  She is the reason our children are beautiful and I am the reason they aren't too bright.  The one thing that we do have in common is I am a sailorman and she is a cowgirl. 
 
Say what?  What do sailors and horse people have in common? Turns out, just about everything. 
 
First off, we both have our own language that only one of our own kind can understand.  A salty sailor will say things like port and starboard, abaft, aback, cunningham, jib, spinnaker, main, keel, keelson, etc.  A cowgirl can be heard to say things like cornet, withers, foreflank, gaskin, dock (where the horses tail joins the body), stifle, fetlock and the list goes on forever.    To the untrained eye, a vessel floating in water with a big pole on it, holding a big piece of cloth might be called a sailboat.  The sailor looking at that same scene will call it a cutter or a sloop, or a yawl or a ketch, maybe he will call it a schooner. The cowgirl doesn't see a horse, she sees a Palomino, or a Paint, a Quarter horse or a Morgan or maybe it's not a horse at all but a mule. (Mule love is a whole other kind of crazy.) 
 
Next is clothing.  Our sailor will have foul weather gear, sea-boots, shorts for summer and flip flops for hanging out on the dock. Our cowgirl will have her duster (foul weather coat) muck boots (for cleaning stalls) riding boots (you guessed it, for riding) and for the English riders they have those pants. (If you don't know what pants, you've led too sheltered a life.)
 
Sailors go to a regatta and horse folk go to the rodeo.  Sailors spend Wednesday night going around the buoys while cowgirls spend it going around the barrels.  From time to time, both of our rides try to toss us off.
 
Sailors have to check the bilge and rig the boat before they can sail; cowgirls have to lunge the horse and saddle up before they can ride.  When you come home, both make sure the ride has been safely put away before you have that beer for yourself.  We both use knots. (Very handy)
 
In short, it is all about passion.  I have a passion to commune with nature in a boat and be one with the wind and wave.   My bride's passion is to be one with one of nature's most noble creatures. In the end, we both go for a ride and have a blast doing it.  
 
So, head on up to the LSA Corral and saddle up.  I'll be the one in the cowboy hat. 
 
Yeeha!  Here's to the horse you came in on.