Church and Trail Riding

Two weekends ago we decided to go horseback riding after church.  It was a beautiful day out and I really wanted to ride my horse.  We had a plan: load the horses up, take them to church with us (they would be fine in the trailer), stop by the farm and grab Barney for Vince, stop and grab lunch and then ride!  Vince was going to get to ride Barney (we were going to lead him from our horses).  Joel was going to ride with Brad and Cecilia was going to ride with me. 

Vince and Barney all ready to go riding

Hank (my horse) had other plans.  Apparently he didn’t feel the need to leave the property that day.  Brad tried to catch him and it wasn’t working.  Brad has little tolerance for Hank’s tricks, so he came inside and told me to catch Hank.  We have to leave our house at 10:10am to get to church on time (by on time I mean exactly the time at which church starts, not a minute to spare).  When Brad came in to tell me I needed to catch Hank it was 9:30am and I was not showered or ready for church yet.  The kids were ready, Brad was ready, the backpack was packed for the day, but I was not.  After a nice run in the pasture chasing my horse until he finally gave up I had exactly 15 minutes to get ready for church.  I did it, but it wasn’t fun! 

Brad and Joel

In case you are thinking “why would you put up with a horse you can’t catch?  Why don’t you just use grain?” let me tell you why.  For starters grain used to work, but he only gets grain when I am trying to catch him and he has figured that out.  If I send a kid out with bucket of grain and stand back I can usually sneak in and catch him.  The new game we play goes like this:  I walk out with grain.  Hank pretends to be interested and comes closer.  Then he realizes that I have a lead rope.  He runs.  I run after him and make him run until he is tired of playing this silly game.  It usually takes about 5-10 minutes to catch him.  Unfortunately for him I have been running on the treadmill so I have a lot more stamina than I used to.  Unfortunately for me Ray usually runs with Hank and I am never quite sure which direction Ray with run.  The sound of his feet running behind me is scary.  As for why I put up with all of this, well Hank will do anything I ask him after I catch him.  I can not ride him for months and jump on for a ride and he will be a perfect angel.  To me that is worth a nice run through the pasture.

Vincent and Barney.  Thanks Keith for letting us use Barney!

When we saw my mother in law at church she offered to watch Cecilia while we went riding.  I was really excited to take Cecilia but it was a lot easier to leave her with Grandma.  The ride went really well.  Vince was excited to ride Barney alone.  We were leading him, but he still had to pay attention and help steer.  He did a great job and by the end of the ride he was trotting and loving it!  Joel rode double with Brad for most of the ride.  He was riding holding a cup with his lunch in it (chicken tenders and fries), a sippy cup and he wanted to hold onto the reins too.  Joel managed to make it most of the ride before he dropped his food.  It was a nice relaxing ride and it was great practice for the kids before we go trail riding on Labor Day weekend.  

Joel, Daddy, a sippy and a cup full of food