December 26, 2014

Ride 'em Cowboy!

And Cowgirls!

December 26, 2014

This was a different kind of day for me.  Our daughter-in-law invited me to go with her when she took the children for their horse riding lessons.  Three of them are taking lessons - the two oldest girls and the seven year old boy.  The girls started about a month or six weeks ago, but the 7 year old had his first lesson today.  I think he was a little apprehensive since he is a little shy and he is built small; to him, those horses must really look huge. 

These children LOVE to be outdoors.  They all scattered when we arrived.  Five of the children were with us and two had stayed home.  One of the boys took off to a far field to talk to the horses there in the pasture.  He spent most of the two hours we were there with them.

When we arrived, the owner was running a little behind schedule since she had let some employees off for the holidays.  We were in no hurry, so we enjoyed wandering around and exploring all the things available for the kids to do to keep busy.

 

A dirt pile with shovels and wheelbarrows kept some of them occupied. (He filled 3 before his lesson started!  And dug a trench across the dirt pile area.)

There were tire swings shaped like horses for the little one to swing on.

 

There was a tall ladder to help the kids climb the huge tree near the stable.

The main attraction of course, was the horses.  The youngest had been taught to let the horse smell her hand first and then to pet it.  She completely enjoyed getting to know each horse.

Before the lessons, they brushed the horses, combed the manes, and checked and cleaned the hoofs.  When the new rider of the bunch was shown how to take care of the hoofs, it turned out that his horse had injured his hoof and had to be treated and then taken to another area for further attention.  So another horse had to be chosen.  

They ended up swapping the horse one of the girls was to ride with the new one brought in since the new one to be used was a good bit larger.

There were balance exercises that they did and the teacher came over to tell my daughter-in-law that the 7 year old had been watching the girls during previous lessons because he knew just what to do on all of them.

He he goes, leading his horse out to the corral.

Ready to ride, and not real sure he really wants to at that point. 

 He did a great job.

The oldest granddaughter ready to ride.

All were now ready for the actual riding part of the lesson.

 

What a beautiful, restful place to spend the morning.  The kids love it and are in  hopes that some day that they can have horses, but they are learning with each lesson, how much work there is in having the horses and how many things must be done to care for them.

After the lesson, we picked up lunch on the way home and I ate with them before going to the office.  Once the mail arrived, I prepared a deposit and went to the bank.  From there I went to the grocery store for Mom and took her things to her house.  We visited for a while before I came home.  Ron was late getting home and so I had already eaten.

Today, as for the hearing, it was very windy at the stables and Barbara and I sat on plastic chairs chatting while the children rode.  The wind got so strong that I could not hear her over the sound of the wind being picked up by the Cochlear sound processor.  We had done fairly well in the beginning, but the wind was amazing.  At one point, the youngest grandchild was sitting in a chair beside Barbara and a gust of wind blew her and the chair over.  At that point I told Barbara we would have to finish the discussion inside because I just could no longer hear her over the wind.