Happy Maggie

Two posts in one day! I know. Crazy. But I really wanted to share these picture from Maggie's horse adventure.

One of my friends made a passing comment that I'm a bit obsessed with horses. I was thinking about that - am I? I think there is a lot of stuff that is making me like this, but the biggest is that Maggie liking horses is the first thing that she has liked 90% on her own.* She has always loved animals FAR more than Cam has (she once cried for 45 minutes because my mom left and didn't give her a chance to say goodbye to her dog). And once we put her on that pony this summer, it's been all horses all the time. Cam was obsessed with firetrucks early on, and we went with that (lots of firetruck toys, the whole firetruck bed). But Maggie? She would just like what Cam liked.

I'm really loving that SHE loves something on her own.

I was a bit nervous for this horse riding 'lesson' - as it is a real horse, and a REAL barn (with other horses and rules). And a person that she needed to listen to that wasn't me. But she did great.

The first part of any lesson is brushing the horse and putting on the saddle. This could have been the only thing that Maggie did and she would have been happy:

And does anyone think that is a HUGE horse!? It was the sweetest thing though. Then she had to put on her helmet and sit up on the horse. I was nervous we were going to have an issue getting her to wear the helmet. No problem whatsoever. I probably could have asked her to do ANYTHING if I let her sit on that horse. Shave her head? Give up all her toys? Sure, if she could ride that horse, lol.

They spent about 30 minutes walking down a path, walking in circles in the ring, and then going around a path in the woods. I watched from a distance, and the smile never left her face. I was worried about getting her off the horse, but she was very happy to give Spring a peppermint and brush her down again and lead her into the stall.

There were two little girls (age 5 and 6) who were at the farm for the day, and they were so sweet to Maggie. Maggie wanted to see every single horse, and there were a lot. So we walked all around, and the friendly horses came right up for some pats.

Maggie was in heaven.

* I say 90% her love of horses, because we have a family that we hang out with often, and the older daughter also loves horses. She is about a year older than Maggie, so Maggie does idolize her a lot. But usually, if she is with someone who likes dolls, for example, she will like dolls while we are hanging out with them. But when we get home, the doll thing is over. Not with the horses. Maggie sleeps every night clutching a tiny plastic horse.