First Horseback Rides

Lily and Jamisen recently had their first horse experience! We went to a farm out in the county that was offering pony rides for a holiday event.

 

Lily did amazing and had a huge smile on her face for much of the hose ride. We've all heard the theory that little girls that are given horses at a young age delay dating boys because all of their time, money and effort goes into the care and feeding of a horse (and not a boy!). I did look for proof of this theory on the internet and couldn't find any actual studies that said that but if that's the case, we're on a good track with Lily given how excited she was about riding the horse!  

We really appreciated the emphasis on safety with the helmets and multiple girls hanging onto the little ones. The horses may have been kid sized but they were still way up there in height!

 

Jamisen was very excited to get on the horse but he was a little more unsure about the entire horse riding thing; perhaps because, unlike his younger sister, he could follow the logic of "What happens if I fall off" to its logical conclusion. She'll get there but for now, it's fine for her to believe the ground is soft and adults always will catch her when she falls.

When he got off the horse, Jamisen did exclaim, "That was fun!" Neither child has asked to ride a horse again though Jamisen and Lily have requested that we go visit our friend Jody who has horses on her property.

After the horseback rides, we stayed bundled up and went to the 'ZipLine Park'. Alas, the zipline was broken so the children had to content themselves with other slightly less dangerous but, still fun, activities like rock jumping and climbing.

It's exciting to see Jamisen's progression on the climbing merry-go-round. Just last year, he never would have been so brave to attempt climbing the ropes. Lily tried to climb them as well but fell flat on her back from a few rungs up. She recovered quickly from her surprise. Our kids are true Nordic vikings and they happily play in the cold until they're shivering and on the verge of hypothermia. Awww, cute little Vikings.