Horsin' Around. . .

The weather on Thursday was just perfect for our second horse lesson. We were prepared for cold weather with coats and gloves but it was sunny and warm with clear, blue skies.

The first lesson of the day was "how to groom a horse". We learned all about different types of brushes and why hygiene is so very important to a horse and rider. . .

Gloria's group was the first to ride in the arena. Buttons waited patiently while Gloria practiced the proper technique for getting into the saddle.

Although I didn't have to help bring the horses in this time, I did volunteer to lead a horse around the arena for the lesson. The instructor knew I was a little anxious around the horses so she checked with me often to see if I was OK and even encouraged me when I did something right!! I even walked behind a horse without freaking out!! That's progress!

I took very few pictures of Gloria since the riding portion of the lesson is only 20 minutes and I led the same horse around with different riders for the entire hour and a half with all of the other groups. . .

I think my horse even realized that I was more relaxed around her this week. . . :

When the lessons ended at 3:00, I wandered around taking pictures of the other horses. . .

They really are quite beautiful. . .

I wasn't paying much attention to anything else, so when Gloria said I needed to join some other moms that were following the instructor out to the corral I just fell in step and went along. . .

Turns out they were teaching us how to shovel horse poop so we could instruct the kid's on how to do it next week!! No big deal. Metaphorically speaking, I shovel a little horse poop everyday.

All the horse poop had to be dumped into the wagon to be hauled away . . . All in a day's work.

I think I could get used to this. . . :