Horse Back Riding

My dad has a friend that has TONS of land and TONS of horses to go with it. If you know anything about Maddie, you know that she absolutely LOVES horses and has always wanted to ride one. She's been around a horse before and even fed it an apple, but has never actually rode. This past Friday night, (with our approval) Papaw came by and surprised Maddie by asking her if she would go on a date with him the next day! She said "sure, do you want to go to chick-fil-a"?!?!?! Haha! Little did she know, he already had an idea for their date and she was so excited when he told her what it was. Saturday, we all got up and headed over to the Winona area and had a great day with the horses! Seriously....we were there for a few hours and Maddie, especially, had a fabulous time!

She was able to ride on a horse for a while by herself and then with her sister! She was also able to feed and brush the horses. Later, when her daddy and I went out on our own horses, she rode around on the four wheeler and had a great time just being outdoors!

Jaime also loved being on and around the horses (he had grown up with them) and enjoyed going out on the trail. Mommy, however, did not enjoy it at all! I love the country, land and horses but I did not enjoy riding! Everyone kept encouraging me to go, so after a crash course in "how to control your horse", I went. As long as we were slowly moving, I was totally fine. The scenery was beautiful and so was my horse. It wasn't until Jaime signaled his horse to gallop that all control was lost! Literally, before I knew it....my horse took off, trying to keep up with Jaime's horse, and I couldn't do anything but hold on and pray that he would eventually stop!! This happened two different times and I blamed Jaime for both of them!! :) Once we got back to the pins, I was completely done and vowed to never get on a horse again. By that evening, my backside and inner leg were completely bruised (clearly, I wasn't riding correctly and I'll spare you those pictures) and I've had to sit on a pillow just like I did after having babies!! Crazy, I know!

All-in-all, it was a great day and Im so glad that "most" of my family loved their experience! :)