Cressey's Turn to Ride

For the last few weeks, Cressey has been expressing interest in horseback riding. Since she'd never really been on the back of a horse on her own, I asked HG's teacher if she could have a quick little try to see if she even liked it before I signed her up for lessons. She graciously squeezed us in right after HG's ride one COLD day, and you would have thought that Cressey was already a master by her talk; however, she was scared stiff from the moment Large Marge moved her foot. I don't think she expected to be jostled so much. With Susan holding onto one leg and HG (who was a fantastic cheerleader) on the other, she managed to walk from the side of the ring to the middle. Then she was READY to get off, and her quivering lip exploded into a huge smile and gushes of how much she loved it. 

Not so patiently waiting for her turn

Last minute pep talk- she was still excited

And then Marge started moving- HG is on the far side

This process took MINUTES just to get to the center of the ring, tiny step by tiny step

But she was so excited!

Ok, great, now she has the bug and asks to ride EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GO TO THE BARN. But there is a long waiting list for lessons, so we just have to take a single lesson when we can. Here's her second time. She was PUMPED and was assigned to Elvis. She got to do all the tacking, and it made my mama heart so proud to see that she knew SO MANY horse vocabulary words. She's obviously been listening to her sister! Her excitement lasted until she had to throw her leg over the side of the horse. Then she panicked. Sweet Erica helped convince her that she could do it and gently lifted her into the saddle. She held her leg and started walking with her toward a letter on a far fence post, while Cress kept asking, "You'll hold me, right???" But before she knew it, she'd made it to that fence post, and they changed direction and started toward another letter. Soon, Cress got comfortable and a smile appeared. She was LOVING IT! She wasn't ready to get off at the end of the lesson- both because she was having fun and she was not happy about sliding off the saddle! She helped clean Elvis up afterward, and I had to practically drag her out of the barn. She's eagerly awaiting her next lesson!