Yeehaw! Look At Me!

So today I thought I would share with you something that I did over Christmas break that I'm proud of. I. rode. a. horse. all. by. myself. For some of you, this may not seem like a big deal but I must assure you that for me it is INCREDIBLY huge. I'm not what you would call an outdoorsy kind of person and I'm not particularly fond of large animals. When you put these two together, you would think that riding horses is something that I wouldn't ever start. And you'd be correct in that assumption.



For those of you that know my husband David even a little, you know he really enjoys doing stuff outside and working with horses. One of the reasons we moved to Mississippi is so that we could live somewhere with enough land to have horses. We currently have three. The horse I'm sitting on is named Megan. Raelynn is sitting on Cricket, and standing behind David is Magic, the most recent addition to the herd. We've been living here for six years and I can count the number of times I've been on these horses on the fingers of one hand and have several fingers left over.



In addition to just having horses, David wants to teach Raelynn to ride too. There have been many times we've gone for walks while David gives Raelynn riding lessons. She ususally rides Cricket and we walk along side of them. To say that Raelynn doesn't like to ride horses is an understatement. What she doesn't quite realize yet is that David is stubborn. She will learn to ride horses. Hopefully one day she'll actually enjoy it.



Lately David has ridden more than he usually does. Having some vacation time allows us to do things we normally don't get a chance to do...like sleep, ride horses, and breathe. In addition to his own riding, he really wants Raelynn and I to join him. I probably don't like horseback riding any more than Raelynn. But to please David and to be a part of a family activity, I rode Megan yesterday and today. And I don't mean some little turn around the yard. I rode her for several miles by myself. David hasn't given me any formal lessons, I think I was able to live through the experience because I learned vicariously through Raelynn's lessons. Whatever I did, it worked. I didn't fall off the horse and she went where I wanted her to go.



Now don't get me wrong, I'm not liking it any more than before. David does lots of things for me that he'd rather not do so I figured I could do the same. And I did. I'm not ready to enter the horse races yet but I feel pretty sure that after all the practice I will get in the future, I'll have me a second career to look forward too....cowgirl.