One Proud (and Relieved) Momma!

The kids love the new playground that was installed at one of the city parks earlier this summer!

Okay, so anyone who knows me knows that I am horse crazy! Can't explain it, but I never grew out of the little girl obsession with the horse - my parents didn't even let me have any growning up or take me to lessons, but I had a good friend in high school that had horses, and the rest is history. John and I met horseback riding. We have never had less than 4 horses since we started seeing each other, we've had as many as 14 at once, and now have a "herd" of 6. One of my big fears with the kids is that they wouldn't take an interest in the horses - what would I do?

After patiently waiting and definitely not pushing Taylor, she told me that she wanted to start riding a few months ago. We made a trip up to a tack shop that my friend's mom owns and got Tay some breeches and a little pair of paddock boots. So, I began calling around about riding lessons - yes, we have 6 horses, but any of you with kids that have tried to teach them anything yourself know that kids don't listen to you and when it comes to horses, listening is essential for safety. I will skip the drama of the riding lesson coordination, but Taylor finally had her first lesson! She did great and loved it! (I only got a few pictures because the batteries died)





Not to be outdone, Trace had his first hippotherapy session this afternoon! The kid is completely horse crazy, and when we got to the barn you never would have known that he saw horses every time he looks out a window at home - he was squealing "horses! horses!". He wasn't crazy about wearing a helmet, and kind of cried through most of the session "Momma, get me NOW!", so I didn't get many pictures because I ended up walking beside him, but he did great - what a great workout for trunk muscles and balance. After he was finished, he didn't want to leave and wanted to do "horse lesson again" (go figure after all the crying). So he goes back next week! His therapist is looking for a different setup for him, as he couldn't hold onto the handles on the pad because they were too low, but he balanced himself great with just holding her fingers!





Now for the not so good news of the week - the neighbor came over last week asking if we would be interested in having 5 white rabbits *just turned out* down around our barn. They are cute and eat grass and can just be loose, he said. So, I agreed. Then Taylor told her daddy that she wanted to "be a rabbit trainer" - next thing I knew we had a rabbit cage on our porch with 2 rabbits - Rosie and Flabbit. If you haven't had rabbits, they are stinky and gross and I have to clean the cage every day - yuck! Trace and Taylor have been feeding them - they also tried to "walk" them on little rabbit leashes, but you can imagine how that worked out. Also, if you didn't know rabbits scratch you - like draw blood - if they don't like what you are doing - so I have now moved a set of oven mitts outside for rabbit handling purposes (they never seem to get the kids, just me). Anyway, here is a picture of "Rosie" with Taylor. For some reason my camera has been taking blurry pictures lately, this isn't the best photo, but at least it isn't very blurry.