Cowgirl Up!

For Evie's birthday, Pa Pa and B gave her some horseback riding lessons at Yonahlosse Riding Arena. Today was her first lesson. She was up and dressed at 6:30 am this morning...excited isn't the word for it. We arrived at 10 and met Evie's instructor, Lauren. She was great and Evie took to her and the horse, Romeo, like white on rice.

The started out by brushing sweet old Romeo. He is such a gentle horse and was once a race horse.
New brush...
Next brush...

Now we have the helmet.

And before Evie and Lauren took off to the indoor arena Ward wanted to pet Mr. Romeo.

They started out in the indoor arena because another little girl was having a lesson in the outdoor arena. Lauren had the lead for the first lap as you will see in the video...


...and then she asked Evie if she wanted to ride by herself. Are you kidding? She said yes and here they are...


...then the pole came out for Evie to take Romeo over. Can we say natural?


Now, Mary Fran and Ward (and Cade) were watching this and the two middle ones decided they wanted to ride. I asked Lauren about this and she graciously told me that she would take them each on a couple of laps around with Romeo after Evie was done. Ward was pumped but Mary Fran decided against it as she would have preferred a pony. They do have a pony to ride but she is not as gentle as Romeo. Knowing this did not change MF's mind, though. However, just after this conversation we saw the black barn cat, Serenity, and was in Heaven!

This would be the Wardster with his helmet on.

"Bye, Mommy!" was all I heard and off he went. We followed, of course.

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?!? I tried to get a video but my battery was way past dying at that point. He went a lap and a half and decided he wanted back on solid ground but I think he would probably ride any of the Thoroughbreds at the stable. In fact, he told me he wanted to before riding Romeo. Right on, Ward!

We had such a great time and I have to say that the stable is small enough to give great attention and instruction and also very nice and professional. Evie's next lesson is next Friday. Let's see if she'll sleep a little later this time...