I can’t claim to be a horse person as such although I appreciate them. Hubby, on the other hand, had bad experiences as a child and remains convinced they are always plotting to hurt humans. (That’s only a slight exaggeration). Anyway, I’ve mentioned Daddy grew up on a farm in rural Arkansas. Papaw had a horse that he used as both a plow horse for the twice a year prepping of the large garden and rode once or twice a day depending on which meadow he sent the cows to for grazing. Part of the fun in our visits was to sit on the fence in the later afternoon for “the round-up” when he would bring the cows in to the barn for the night. Giving us rides on Tony (the horse) was a bit of a process for him, but he would occasionally take time and let all of us have a turn around the fenced in area. I think the reason we never got into riding more was because a) that wasn’t the purpose of the horse and b) my oldest cousin did give it a try a few times and that didn’t go very well. (We weren’t around, but apparently the end result was a broken arm).

Moving on, when we were in Hawaii, I did take son for riding lessons and that continued briefly when we moved to Virginia. The lady giving the lessons relocated the horse and it wasn’t as convenient, plus son decided he was into other things. He did go on a couple of riding excursions on vacations, but never wanted more than that. In reality, “being into horses” definitely requires time and money, so that wasn’t something to urge him to reconsider. In looking at activities for the kids when they come after Christmas, I ran across the Redland Equestrian Center. They have a working farm as well as give regular lessons, etc., Granddaughter enjoyed going to the Pinto Farm a couple of years and this is kind of a “cut above”. It involves a two-hour tour of the farm, petting zoo, and so forth and a 20-minute guide-led horse/pony segment. That is, someone actually leads the horse/pony by the reins. I had sent the link to son and he said he thought they would enjoy. After having now booked them in, I realized I didn’t specifically ask daughter-in-law if she would. If the answer turns out to be “no”, she can let son and granddaughter do the horse part and share in the rest.