Oh, to be 7 years old again……. Herb, Wendy, Nancy, Lena and I met the park manager of Phipps Park and his 7 year old daughter at Phipps on Saturday for a ride. It had been many years since Robert had ridden and those weren’t great experiences, so he was a bit nervous. Kate had only ridden a few times, but was extremely excited to ride a horse again. So Herb and I cleaned out our 3-horse LQ trailer, normally ready for camping with the 3rd stall used for storage, and made room for 3 horses to transport to Phipps. We also packed up tack, etc. for 3 horses. Well I forgot how much work that can be…..whew! But when we pulled in to Phipps and saw Kate peeking out from behind her dad with a HUGE smile on her face, the thought of the workload faded quickly. We saddled up our 3 boys (Beau for Robert, General for Kate and Cricket for me). We tried to shorten the stirrups to fit Kate’s legs…..failed at that, but did manage to make her helmet fit. She was a sport and so happy to be up on General, she didn’t care that she couldn’t reach the stirrups. We got Dad up and settled and off we went for about an 1.5 hour ride, me leading General with Kate. One thing I wanted to do was give Robert a different perspective of those trails and that I did. While riding, Robert agreed seeing the trails this way was very different and very enjoyable. I told Kate that General really liked to be petted on the mane occasionally while riding. It was so cute, when I looked back and caught her small hand patting General’s mane. Like I said, oh to be 7 again……
Interestingly enough, we came up on an SUV that was trying to drive down our trail. Was basically lost trying to get out of the park from a Gulf Winds Track Club meet. We also passed a biker with his dog off-leash. Other than that, all hikers and bikers were very considerate and almost all were happy to stop and admire the horses. On the way back to the trailers, I asked Kate if we were going to have to drag her off General and she quietly said with a grin “maybe”. It was a perfectly beautiful day and everyone really enjoyed the quiet ride through the woods. Needless to say I was really happy to get two people back in the saddle again. Something worth thinking about….. if you have the opportunity to reintroduce a child or adult to horseback riding, do it. It has multiple benefits and is quite fulfilling for yourself.
Sharon
