Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Horseback Riding! SO fun!

There is a small horse farm down the road from Paul's parents' house - it's owned by the nearby Valley Green park but is leased yearly and private owners can stable their horses there. I guess it's not really a 'farm' but I don't know what else to call it. It has a big beautiful over-100-years-old barn, a riding circle and a few small pastures for the horses. PopPop arranged for Carly to have a riding lesson yesterday morning so we walked over. It's still amazing to me that right in the middle of this regular neighborhood, hi, there are some horses.
Carly learned how to brush the horse, about its winter coat, how to put on the bridle and what the saddle pad was for. Her horse for the morning was HotShot, possibly the world's laziest animal. It was hilarious. Paul, meanwhile, was doing a really good job NOT showing exactly how nervous he was, but he was never more than a foot and a half from her.
Bree spent the morning jumping off of these steps that have probably been right here since before Oklahoma was a state.
Carly and HotShot headed down to the training ring.
Paul stayed out of the ring as long as he possibly could, about five minutes, but it was soon apparent that Carly would be safe from renegade runaway horses and he was able to relax a tiny bit, at least enough to get back outside the fence. Carly learned to steer the horse, how to balance in the saddle and how to jog...well sort of jog; HotShot wasn't exactly in a jogging mood - he'd go about five steps and just stop while Carly was up there clicking and nudging and yelling "GO HOTSHOT!!!" So funny...the horse just looked at the trainer like "Nope."
Headed back up to the barn - it was the most beautiful day and this part of the country is just so pretty during the spring. We none of us can breathe but it's worth it. =)
 While Bree got her own horseback riding lesson. =)

2 comments:

E. Garrett said...

what a great post. looks like the girls had an amazing time :)

Our Family of Four said...

See now if I had a horse like Hotshot the first time I went riding I might not beso deathly afraid of them now! So glad she had fun.