The Little Lady's 1st Horse Back Riding Lesson

The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit and freedom. - Sharon Ralls Lemon

The Little Lady has been praying for a horse for months and months! So, we found a sweet lady that gives lessons to Children and Adults of all ages (The youngest age being 4 years old.) Since, The Little Lady just turned four a few weeks ago, she had her very first lesson today!

Our experience began with the long driveway that goes up to Mrs. Kat's home. A beautiful black fence with different pastures for her 13 horses. Mrs. Kat saw us driving up and she ran to the car with eager anticipation of meeting us! Although I had talked to Mrs. Kat several times on the phone and researched her horse stables through the Internet, I had not met her. Imagine our surprise when we drove up and saw that Mrs. Kat had RED hair! Ah.... Kindred Spirits! The Little Lady was excited! She exclaimed, "Mommy, She has RED hair like us!"

Mrs. Kat had us drive down to the barn and that is where they began the Little Lady's lesson. The first order of business was learning the basics of taking care of a horse. They took Rocky (a 12 year old) horse out of the stables and Mrs. Kat talked to the Little Lady about brushing Rocky. She showed her the different parts of the horse's body and they also learned the name of the horse equipment and what each item was used for. (They will do this for each lesson)

Here they are naming the body parts of the horse and being introduced to Rocky.

Mrs Kat showed the Little Lady how to groom the horse and clean the Horse's hooves.

Then the riding lesson began! Here she is learning how to go to the left, right, how to get the horse to go, and how to Stop!!! In order for Mrs. Kat to find out how her balance was on a horse, she had the Little Lady hold on to the reign with one hand and with the Little Lady's other hand she was to touch different parts of her body as Mrs. Kat lead Rocky around the arena. Mrs. Kat also needed to see how the Little Lady would do if the horse wanted to trot. So, she lead the horse around the arena in a trot. The Little lady had no fear! She giggled and laughed and kept saying, "Wee!" My heart was saying, "Whoa

Oh the anticipation for the next lesson!