Horses

Last week was our spring break. (Some "spring" break, huh? It started out 40 degrees and not spring on the calendar or the weather.) However, we had lots of fun things going on, and, by the end of the week, we had an 80 degree day.

Yesterday morning, I took Katie and Claire for free riding lessons with some of our friends from church. It really was great! Michele gave Claire a lesson, while her daughter, Jessica, gave Katie a lesson.

Claire is up in the first pic, on a pony named Brownie. In the pic, she's putting her hands on her head-- the main thing they worked on was how to sit on the horse to keep good balance, so Michele had Claire doing all sorts of things to check if she was balanced.

Katie was on a horse named Badger. Katie esp liked trotting. It's not as much fun to walk, I guess.

They live in a pretty part of the country-- Keedysville, MD, SE of Hagerstown. It was a pretty drive there, and I very much enjoyed being outside watching the girls. It was a bit chilly, tho.

Before ever riding, the girls learned all about the animals by helping to groom them. Fun to hear how interested Claire was in all of it-- and had no hesitations... she wasn't scared of holding the pony's hoof or anything... and she didn't mind getting dirty. :)

It was so fun to see Claire just LOVE it! She has always been interested in horses, and she has riding horses for a short time period, but this was her first up-close, personal introduction. She now loves Brownie and can't wait to see her again. We'll definitely be going back sometime. Maybe when it's a little warmer. :)

One video here. 2 more on another post.