The cowpoke at the dude ranch was getting the crowd to pick the type horse they wanted.
"For those seasoned riders, we have fast horses. For you novice riders, we have slow horses."
A city slicker spoke out, "What if you've never ridden a horse?"
The cowpoke said, "Great. For you who have never ridden, we have horses that have never been ridden, as well."
There was a little trail ride place north of the Grand Canyon back in the 70s at a place called VT. I don't know if it's still there or not -- I doubt it.
Those horses were gentle but they knew who was in charge. They knew how to scrape tourists off on trees and they moved a lot quicker on the way back to the corral than heading out.
One time I heard about a tourist who got lost on the little 3 mile or so trail. After waiting a couple of hours the hands went looking for him.
They found him still on the horse in the middle of a meadow. The horse was casually eating grass.
The tourist said he was afraid to get off because he didn't think he'd be able to get back on again. Ha, ha.
I had the same thing happen to me when I was about 9, but riding a mule somewhere in the canyons beyond Palm Springs. I tried to get the mule to move, but he took to foraging on grass and took his sweet time going back.