Saints and Horses

The photo above is of my friend, Shiloh, helping Amara put a bridle on her horse, "Bay."  Steve bought horse lessons for the girls at our church youth service auction.  Mya is their teacher.  She is Shiloh's daughter, and Shiloh supervises and helps.  We bought 4 lessons that we intended on splitting between the 2 girls, but after the first lesson, Shiloh and Mya gave us the news that they would be giving 4 lessons to each of our girls.  The girls were elated and I felt so thankful to have such sweet saints in my life that bring joy to me and my family.

The lessons take place at Shiloh's house and we use their horses and tack and all.  Lily rides a white horse named, "Grey," and Amara rides "Bay."

They've learned how to behave around horses, how to saddle up, and they are learning how to drive them. They love every minute of their lessons.

Sadly, they only have one official lesson left, but on the upside, they will get to go riding on a trail, rather than just in the corral, with their teachers while I watch Shiloh's other cute kids. 

I've sure enjoyed watching them gain confidence on their horses, and it actually has planted a small seed of desire in me to give it a try myself.  I've never been a horse person or cared to ever go horseback riding, but I did go once when I was in college, when I was invited on a double date.  That was probably not the best ride I could've had.  For one, my horse was SO slow.  I mean, it would walk at least 20 feet behind everyone else's horses, so everyone was chatting away and enjoying the ride while I was all alone.  I must say the view from up there was beautiful, and we were in the picturesque Huntsville, Utah on comfortable summer evening while the sun was gently setting.  But other than that, it didn't make me a lover of horses and riding them.  When it was all over, I was so sore.  The next day was just pain.  My legs.  My knees.  My hips.  My sides and back!  My goodness!  So, that was my horse riding career, begun and done in a one hour ride.  But now, I'm not so sure.  My girls have so much fun that I just may want to give that a try again.