Horses, Horses, Horses, Horses - Part 1

Last September when we visited Ohio Sydney and her Grandma talked a lot about horses and Sydney kept saying how she wanted to ride one. Well, thankfully Grandma has some connections and she was able to set us up with 2 opportunities to visit and ride some horses while we were visiting at Christmastime.

The first horse we visited was Sunny. She was a very gentle 9 year old horse that belonged to a lovely girl named Charlotte. Charlotte purchased Sunny when she herself was 9 years old. Now 15, she and Sunny have grown up together. Charlotte and Sunny both love pink, so automatically she was a favorite with Sydney! Sunny loves kids and didn't even mind when Jayden petted her nose!

At first S was a little apprehensive. After all she has only ridden ponies and has never really seen a big horse up close. She decided one way to help herself feel more connected to the horse would be to much on a carrot from the bag we brought along to feed Sunny.

Jayden, on the other hand, was not afraid at all. He thought the horse was so cool. So, we decided we could put him on top of the horse for a minute!

Well, not to be outdone by her baby brother, S finally decided that Sunny was o.k. and she was ready to get on!

After that, Sydney loved Sunny and I'm sure she'd tell you now that Sunny is her BFF. Charlotte saddled Sunny up and they walked over to the arena. (Which we were thankful was indoors since it was below freezing that day!) What a cute sight to see Sydney, Charlotte, and Sunny all dressed in pink!

Charlotte and Sunny were both such good sports. It was really cold and Charlotte must have walked Sydney and Sunny around the arena 25 times or more. Sydney had a grand time, Charlotte froze, and Sunny just kept on walking making a 5 year old's dream come true....

Later we watched Charlotte ride Sunny and do some jumps with her. Then she held Jayden and they took a turn together around the arena.

So, it was a great morning. We all enjoyed visiting Sunny and watching Sydney on her first big horse. Now if only Sydney can get over her fear of dogs...