Becoming Cowboys

Since July, we have been making the weekly trek up to see Grams, and she’s been teaching her grandkids about horses.

These pictures were taken at the first lesson… (Before we start 1-I don’t know if I am spelling any of the horse terminology correctly, so if not, feel free to correct me all you horse lovers out there! 2–below is a bunch of fun pictures along with fun things we are learning)

The kids have learned how to clean out the hooves, being careful of the frog (the tender part in the middle of the foot(. They all have had a turn doing this mostly by themselves, with supervision from grams.

Something they do twice at lessons is brush the horse down good, with different type of brushes, so she won’t get any sores.

They have learned the proper way to put on and take off a saddle blanket and saddle (and how to place a saddle down on the ground, so it won’t get ruined).

An important lesson, which side of the horse to get on and off.

How to give a horse a carrot (Fingers together and thumb in)

The importance of wearing a helmet (so far only Truman has fallen off),

They have learned how to hold the reigns and ‘drive’ the horse. (Last week they did it completely by themselves, Grams, just walked along side)

Elliot is progressively spending more and more time on the horse, before exclaiming ‘all done’. Our last lesson, we went around the corral like 3 times!

We’re hoping we can continue these lessons through the fall, or until it’s too cold! We’ve had a great time thus far! Thanks Grams, we love you!