Emily seems to be absolutely horse crazy right now...whether it's a phase or not, she is certainly not letting up so far. We took the family to the local Red Hills Horse Trials in March and she LOVED looking at all the beautiful horses. We watched some dressage and looked at the jumps the horses would be jumping the next day.
John has an employee who's wife gives horse lessons, has run summer horse camps, and rescues abused horses. John mentioned to Mr. F that Emily was crazy over horses recently and so Mr. F set up a time for the whole family to come out to their farm and ride. I cannot even tell you how excited Emily was. We learned about how she rescued all the horses she has and where they each came from. Mrs. F also offered to give Emily her own private horse lesson. She took her down to a different field and started from the beginning...they worked for about 45 minutes. Emily got up to where she could make the horse trot all by herself and was riding without any help. It was beautiful and quite amazing! Mrs. F said that Emily was a natural and that she took to it very easily, correcting herself already as she went. She even offered to give Emily lessons over the summer! Of course, Emily was to but John and I are still thinking on it....we're not sure we want to encourage her love of horses....my oh my it is an expensive hobby! It was very cool watching her ride though! She was riding a horse named "Yuck" that Mrs. F rescued a few years ago...the owner had quit feeding it. Before that owner, the horse had been in the Red Hills Horse Trials and had been sold for like $30,000. When Mrs. F got her, she was so sick that the vet told her to put the horse down but she didn't. She slept with it in the barn for weeks giving it food and water through a turkey baster....and miraculously, the horse is almost completely healed. She still has some ulcers due to the starvation and isn't as nice and plump as a Thoroughbred would normally be....but what a story! After riding, the kids washed the horse off and put the equipment away....what a fun family day thanks to the kindness of others!
John Daniel and Molly both got to ride too!
