Horse Riding Lessons???

So, about a year ago we started talking to Teralyn about what she would like to do (as far as activities). She is not so thrilled with sports and we didn't have a piano yet, so there wasn't much to choose from. We had already tried ballet and liked it, but it wasn't something that we thought would hold for her. Anyway, after thinking about it for a while, we decided it would be fun to get her into horse back riding lessons. Yes, I know, EXPENSIVE! Well, we called a few places and realized how much it was and then put it off.

It has now been over a year since we promised Teralyn that she could take lessons. When we moved to our current house, she befriended a girl in her first grade class who became her best friend. Of course, she rides horses. To top that off, she has also become really good friends with a girl in our neighborhood who takes horse back riding lessons. We didn't stand a chance after that. Finally, after promising for quite a while, we decided to check it out. Every Saturday afternoon at the Columbia Horse Center there is a free lesson at 1:00. So we met there, (Brian had to meet us since work has been a little crazy lately) and the girls (Teralyn and Shaylee) got to take an hour lesson on horse back. The girls had a blast! We were wondering why in the world we ever payed for a little horse ride for about five minutes which costs about five bucks, when we could have come here. It was great! Well, maybe a little too great. By the time they were done, we had no chance of getting out of it. Actually we had a small one... we had told Tera all along that if she wanted to join she could, but we really had no intention of Shay joining (she has basketball). We made it clear to Shay that she would have to wait and she was very sweet about it. She knew from the get go that it was just for Tera.



Okay so, it was so hard to resist. When we saw how much they both enjoyed it (which is saying something for my girls who are scared of butterflies!), and how sweet Shay was about waiting, we broke our self control and let both of them join!! Yes, it costs quite a bit, and right now we are broke, but Bri just keeps reminding me about Shaylee's genuine smile when she realized that she was in too.



The program that they are in is called Pony Pals. A parent has to lead the child around through the whole lesson. Since one of us has to stay with our other two kids, there is someone from the horse center who leads one of our daughters. Bri went on Friday with the girls and they had a great time. Tera was a little nervous at first, but once she took charge, the horse started trusting her and she did a great job. Shay was confident through the whole thing. Shay's horse was Tugboat and Tera's was Penelope.

We shall see how long this will last, but we are having fun while it does.