Horseback Riding Daisies
The Daisies had an AWESOME time! We went horseback riding at Rock N R Equine today...
We were very early; by about 20 minutes, in fact, which is stunning for me! We were invited into the barn where we met one of the barn cats, who happens to look exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) like the Roo, down to the white tip of her tail. The owner says the cat was walking down the side of the road, and when Dana saw the cat, she called, “Kitty?” The cat whipped around at the sound, and her brother came darting out the weeds, too. “They both literally just came running AT me, and that’s so NOT normal cat behavior! I think they were both pets at some point and someone just dumped them, so when they heard me call “kitty,” they just came running. They’ve been here ever since.” I never saw the brother, and the little stripey one was happy to run up to you, but also shied away very easily.
There were a couple of minis in the stalls, and two regular-sized horses outside the barn. The owner of the ranch (Rock-N-R Equine Training & Rehabilitation) has a six year-old neice who was there, so she was showing off the chickens to the Girl Scouts.
Eventually others started to show up. I finally rounded them up and said, “This is for your red Courageous and Strong petal. When you do something courageous and strong that you’ve never done before, it’s usually best to listen to the expert in the subject so that things do not go badly for you. I expect you to listen carefully to anything Miss Dana tells you today.” And she took over from that point, leading the Daisies into the barn. They looked at the big horse for a bit and then she gave them all orange folders with a glittery horse sticker on the front. Inside, there was a “What Horses Eat” sheet of paper with little plastic envelopes attached, and one was full of hay and the other was full of “grain,” looked a lot like alfalfa pellets to me. There were also some interesting facts about horses, some horse anatomy, and some pictures of and terms for tack.
Then they pulled out the tack and went over all the items; the saddle blanket and what it was for, the western saddle, the English saddle, the different bridles. They let the girls lift up the saddles to compare the weight of each type.
Then they pulled out two of the minis, Streaker and ... I want to say Spike, but that isn’t right. She showed them how to approach a horse from the side and get right up to its shoulder, to avoid the back legs, to let them check you out. She passed out a bunch of curry combs, and the Daisies went to work trying to rub the mud off the horses’ hides. Then they did a tiny bit with the stuff brushes, and Lauren got to brush the horse’s face, which she thought was awesome beyond words.
After that, it was time to follow Dana and mini out to the corral and do some riding. Everyone got a turn putting on a helmet, and they were given the reins of the mini and the led him around the ring at least a couple of times, practicing getting him to go and to stop on command. Then they used a two-tier stepstool to get up to horse level, and they were taught how to swing their legs over the horse properly. For the rest of the riding, the minis were kept on Dana’s lead, but the girls were able to use the reins to control the horse as well.
After each girl had taken her turn, I met her at the gate, giving her a high-five and asking, “Did you have fun?” Everyone, even the shy one, said “YES!”
For the grand finale, the girls were led back to the barn, where they tied up the mini again, and then Dana disappeared into the tack room and came back with a bundle of four-foot-long stick horses for each of the girls to take home! They grabbed them and “rode” them around the barn (darn my camera battery for being dead!) with great joy. “Um, guys...do you think maybe we owe Miss Dana a thank-you?” Some of the girls more or less mumbled a “thank you,” but the moms burst into spontaneous applause and cheers, so both Dana and I know THEY were impressed. :-)
Lauren was so excited tonight that she took her stick horse out to Longhorn; she came bursting through the restaurant doors with a stick horse and a horsie folder, dressed in her jeans, long-sleeved white T-shirt and Daisy vest, fairly shouting, “Daddy! I rode horsies!” On the way home she gives her stick horse a huge hug and says, with deep passion in ther voice, “Oh, I just LOVE my horsie!”
We were very early; by about 20 minutes, in fact, which is stunning for me! We were invited into the barn where we met one of the barn cats, who happens to look exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) like the Roo, down to the white tip of her tail. The owner says the cat was walking down the side of the road, and when Dana saw the cat, she called, “Kitty?” The cat whipped around at the sound, and her brother came darting out the weeds, too. “They both literally just came running AT me, and that’s so NOT normal cat behavior! I think they were both pets at some point and someone just dumped them, so when they heard me call “kitty,” they just came running. They’ve been here ever since.” I never saw the brother, and the little stripey one was happy to run up to you, but also shied away very easily.
There were a couple of minis in the stalls, and two regular-sized horses outside the barn. The owner of the ranch (Rock-N-R Equine Training & Rehabilitation) has a six year-old neice who was there, so she was showing off the chickens to the Girl Scouts.
Eventually others started to show up. I finally rounded them up and said, “This is for your red Courageous and Strong petal. When you do something courageous and strong that you’ve never done before, it’s usually best to listen to the expert in the subject so that things do not go badly for you. I expect you to listen carefully to anything Miss Dana tells you today.” And she took over from that point, leading the Daisies into the barn. They looked at the big horse for a bit and then she gave them all orange folders with a glittery horse sticker on the front. Inside, there was a “What Horses Eat” sheet of paper with little plastic envelopes attached, and one was full of hay and the other was full of “grain,” looked a lot like alfalfa pellets to me. There were also some interesting facts about horses, some horse anatomy, and some pictures of and terms for tack.
Then they pulled out the tack and went over all the items; the saddle blanket and what it was for, the western saddle, the English saddle, the different bridles. They let the girls lift up the saddles to compare the weight of each type.
Then they pulled out two of the minis, Streaker and ... I want to say Spike, but that isn’t right. She showed them how to approach a horse from the side and get right up to its shoulder, to avoid the back legs, to let them check you out. She passed out a bunch of curry combs, and the Daisies went to work trying to rub the mud off the horses’ hides. Then they did a tiny bit with the stuff brushes, and Lauren got to brush the horse’s face, which she thought was awesome beyond words.
After that, it was time to follow Dana and mini out to the corral and do some riding. Everyone got a turn putting on a helmet, and they were given the reins of the mini and the led him around the ring at least a couple of times, practicing getting him to go and to stop on command. Then they used a two-tier stepstool to get up to horse level, and they were taught how to swing their legs over the horse properly. For the rest of the riding, the minis were kept on Dana’s lead, but the girls were able to use the reins to control the horse as well.
After each girl had taken her turn, I met her at the gate, giving her a high-five and asking, “Did you have fun?” Everyone, even the shy one, said “YES!”
For the grand finale, the girls were led back to the barn, where they tied up the mini again, and then Dana disappeared into the tack room and came back with a bundle of four-foot-long stick horses for each of the girls to take home! They grabbed them and “rode” them around the barn (darn my camera battery for being dead!) with great joy. “Um, guys...do you think maybe we owe Miss Dana a thank-you?” Some of the girls more or less mumbled a “thank you,” but the moms burst into spontaneous applause and cheers, so both Dana and I know THEY were impressed. :-)
Lauren was so excited tonight that she took her stick horse out to Longhorn; she came bursting through the restaurant doors with a stick horse and a horsie folder, dressed in her jeans, long-sleeved white T-shirt and Daisy vest, fairly shouting, “Daddy! I rode horsies!” On the way home she gives her stick horse a huge hug and says, with deep passion in ther voice, “Oh, I just LOVE my horsie!”
posted by Kelly at
3:46 AM
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