Horse Camp

Miss J. has been looking forward to "horse camp" for months.  She loved every minute and reportedly was quite a natural with the horses!

Hope

We pulled Miss. Claudia out of school to thank a generous supporter of Camelot.  Bret Michaels and his family fund the care of Barbara.  Barbara is an Andalusian mare who is calm and beautiful.  Camelot is a therapeutic horsemanship program that runs entirely on donations and does not charge the riders a penny.  

I thought we would be good sports and meet Bret and thank him this morning.  And yes, I did my best to sing Claudia "Every rose has its thorn" so she would know who this generous man is.  He was quite warm and friendly to Claudia, he even told her she was beautiful.  

What I did not expect is the hope that he shared with us.  Hope that by reaching back and reinvesting ourselves we can help each other.  So thank you Bret and thank you Camelot for all the empowering you do!

Accomplishments

Julianne is one determined little girl.  She gets an idea in her head and she is close to impossible to persuade.  Convinced that her new bike was unsafe she was not going to ride it.  Matt and I trying to be patient marched the bike to the neighborhood basketball courts thinking she might just need some more room... nope.  She would sit on the bike, strap on the helmet and then immediate she was off only to stomp her feet again.  It was frustrating and puzzling.  Knowing that she gets these lovely traits from somewhere we tried again and again with little success.  Finally we added a basket and adjusted the training wheels to run as close as possible to the pavement and finally she decided it was OK to ride.  She loves it.  First thing she says when she wakes up is that she wants to go for a bike ride and tells us what a fantastic rider she is!  We are lucky to have her!

On a separate note, we are also very proud of Claudia and her bravery with horse back riding.  She has been working with a team at Camelot all Fall and is doing quite well.  There was a hint that she might be getting close to riding with only one side walker.  Slow and steady, we celebrate these accomplishments.

Giddy-up

Off to another summer session of riding!

RIDEABILITY

The girls enjoyed a perfect Minnesota sunset as they rode with the Rideability Program.  They couldn't be more excited to tell everyone the names of their horses and that they went "horse backing".

Waiting in anticipation...

Claudia riding J.T.

Eloise riding Ginger

Cooling off with treats after a long ride!  Way to go cowgirlies!