deviousways

Not long ago, Amy Vodraska was a 100%, bona fide grown-up. She was taking care of two kids, a husband, and a job and working toward her master's. Her nose was so pressed to the grindstone, it's a miracle it wasn't sharpened to a point. And then something happened. Amy Vodraska cracked. "It hit me that I was spending all my time doing what I was supposed to do. I thought, Am I ever allowed to have fun again?" So, in the midst of her all-work-and-no-play crisis, the Boonton, NJ, woman signed up for one horseback-riding lesson a week. She had ridden as a kid and had given it up in college. "As soon as I climbed back on a horse, I felt my shoulders disconnect from my earlobes--and I realized how much fun I had been missing," she says. Fast-forward a few years and you'll find Vodraska, now 43, riding and even playing tag in the ring with Sugar, her Royal Dutch Warmblood, at least four times a week. "Just putting my face in her shoulder makes me feel ...