It's not the place you would expect to see a 100-year-old, on the back of a horse. But it's exactly where Margaret Wessol, of Richland, wanted to spend her special birthday.

The Richland woman turned 100 on Aug. 30. She celebrated it Aug. 25 when she rode a horse at Ford Stable in Indiana Township.

"I've always loved horses as far back as I can remember," she said from Fosnight Personal Care Home, where she lives.

Wessol was able to go horseback riding through the efforts of an international nonprofit program called Second Wind Dreams and Kathy Stanley, director of activities at Fosnight. Second Wind Dreams grants wishes to those who live in communities that care for senior citizens. Its goal is to enhance the quality of life for those residents as well as to change perceptions of aging.

"She said a few years ago that she wanted to ride a horse, so we put the word out," Stanley said of Wessol. "One of our volunteers also volunteers for Riding for the Handicapped, so we were able to arrange it."

This is the fifth year that Wessol has gone riding to celebrate her birthday. During the most recent, Wessol rode with children in the Riding for the Handicapped program.

"Someone walked next to her so she was safe," Stanley said.

Nine of Wessol's fellow residents of the home went to watch her enjoy her activity.

"I had fun. I'd like to go again." she said.

"Margaret loves it," said Toots Abbott, program director for Riding for Handicapped. "The first time she came, I thought she would get on and just ride around the rink. But she rode the whole lesson, even a little trail ride."

Abbott said Wessol continued to ride the entire 45-minute class. "We help her get on and off because she is tiny. And she is 100 years old after all," she said.

Wessol was born in the North Side, the youngest of 11 children of Emil and Caroline Redlinger, and grew up in Brentwood. She also spent a great deal of time in Kansas.

"We lived in Kansas on an uncle's farm. They put me up on a horse when I was real little," Wessol recalled. "I may not have even walked back then."

Her late husband, Sylvester T. Wessol, worked for J&L Steel in Hazelwood. The couple were married for 55 years and had three children: James, of West Covina, Calif.; Carol Ibinson, of Richland; and Margaret Eiben, of Grand Rapids, Mich. Wessol has 10 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Before her birthday horse rides, it had been "years and years and years" since she had ridden, Wessol said.

In addition to the horseback rides, Wessol has been able to ride a go-cart through Second Wind Dreams.

"I even drove it," she said. "My mother and father always said I should have been a boy. I was always a daredevil."

Through the Second Wind, Stanley has arranged activities for others, including a formal dance.

Another wish was simple: A woman wanted to have a watermelon-seed spitting contest like when she was a child.

It has become an annual event.

Wessol's daughter, Carol Ibinson, said her mother "was pretty boring when we were growing up, she never even drove."

Now Ibinson supports her mother's activities.

"I think it is great. Why would I worry?" she said.

As far as her next adventure, Wessol is turning her attention to the skies. She once rode in a small airplane and would like to do it again: "I want to fly again."

Stanley is trying to arrange that.