A Pink Horse for Christmas....Horseback Riding!

For Christmas Elizabeth asked for a horse and we told her 'no'. And we told her that we told Santa 'no.' But we promised her that we would take her horseback riding. Today we made true to that promise.

Brother Rawlings from our High Council is a cowboy and works with the Westernaires (youth horse drill teams). We asked and he allowed us to come and ride his horses, Ruthie and Hippie. Ruthie (the white horse) is Hippie's Mom and they are very competitive with each other.  They are trick horses but very good with kids. One of his riders, Lindsey, came to help out. We were going to ride outside but it started raining right as we got there, so we went inside to the arena.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth loved it. I thought she would be nervous because the horses are so big but she wasn't at all. She walked in and saw Ruthie and said, "Oh Mom, she is so beautiful!" She climbed up, grabbed the horn of the saddle and said, "I know what I'm doing.  I ride the horses at King Soopers."  She was so confident and excited. When they asked if she wanted to get down and watch Lindsey run with the horses she said, "No, but [patting the saddle] you can come up here with me."  So they did and they were able to go a bit faster, at which Elizabeth replied, "Wow, riding a horse is jiggley."

Petting Ruthie

 

 

They also let Ben and I ride; we rode Hippie alongside Elizabeth.  Ben rode for a while and then got off so that I could ride.  Then I rode and rode and rode.  They let me take the reins and it was so fun to control the horse.  I love horses and have loved riding since I was little and took lessons from some Young Women in our ward.  But I really have never ridden since I was little so it was so great to be able to ride again. 

As James watched the horses he was so interested and excited.  He would reach out and touch them and was not nervous at all.  They had Elizabeth jump down for a little bit and let James ride.  From the moment we put him on, with Lindsey, he just sat wide eyed, not scared but in awe.  At one point he just started talking and talking as we went around.  Then after he got down he reached out to pet them again.  

 

 

When we got off they ran the horses to show us what they could do. Wow.

After riding we took them outside and got to give them treats and put them away. Elizabeth didn't really like giving them treats because it was slobbery.  It was so wonderful being outside with them, seeing them run in the pen and being able to care for such amazing animals.  It made me really want to be a cowgirl and have a horse (which we hinted at Ben a lot- ha). When it was done I asked Elizabeth if she felt like a cowgirl and we agreed instead that she was a Princess Cowgirl.