Horses!

Okay, I'm sure you're all happy that I'm done being a shrill political gadfly. Here's a little story about our day at the stables:

Greg and I picked up Ellie at school the other day, and Greg came up with the nice idea to go to the stables at Harms and Golf to look at the horses. So we drove on over and walked around the stables and watched the girls riding in the outdoor arena. One woman going by us even stopped and let us pet her horse. Then we walked to another small arena where a man was letting two horses race freely around, chasing each other. That was very cool to see.

We walked through the stalls to the office area and inquired about lessons, but the woman said kids have to be seven to start lessons. But we take Ellie back for pony rides, which they have every Saturday.

So we asked if we could walk around and see the horses, and they said sure, so we strolled through the stalls and read the names of the horses and then we walked back outside to watch the riders again.

While we were watching, a girl who looked like she was about 13 came over to us with a horse and asked if we wanted to pet him. She said his name was Ben and he was a lesson horse and was about 30 years old. I didn't know that horses lived that long, but I guess they do. I wonder if Aunt Gen might have ridden Ben or known of him when she rode there, given as how old he is.

The girl asked if we wanted to meet some more horses and we did, so she brought us back into the stables and showed us more horses. We met Snowy and Lily and Marbles. There were quite a few horses coming and going, so I was getting a little nervous about one of us getting kicked or jostled around, but it seemed to work out. Our guide anchored one of the horses up and let Ellie brush it and pet it.

We headed back home after that. It was a great time! They've redone the stables a lot since I was a kid, but the inside horse arena looks the same, so that brought back some memories.