Birthday horse ride

For months Dominic has been asking to ride a horse for his birthday. It was pretty much the theme for his gifts this year which included cowboy boots and shirt, toy horses and stables.

Vickey found a horse owner/trainer who was willing to give the kids (yes, of course Eliana had to participate) an hour with her horse.

We drove down towards the Galleria Mall and kept going east to Boulder Highway. There’s a nice horse stable and arena facility there. I’m not a horse guy, although I do have my Scouting horsemanship merit badge, so I can’t use all the right terminology. But there were dozens and dozens of stables, all full or horses, plenty of arenas to ride the horses in and lots of people milling around. It was horse heaven tucked away less than 10 miles from our home.

At any rate, both kids got to ride Freeway. Dominic was first of course because it was his birthday. He was all smiles.

Eliana got a ride as well and she even took the reins herself and steered the horse around the arena several times. She even had it trot a bit (which made Vickey pretty nervous).

As we left the crazy Vegas winds kicked up and eventually got so bad we could no longer keep our eyes or mouths open at all. We had to pack up and leave in a hurry just as Freeway and his two horse companions were getting hosed down for the night.

Tonight I cleaned the van to remove the dirt from the outside and vacuumed it inside. There was almost a solid half-inch of dust over every inch of the inside of the van, that’s how bad the sand and wind was last night.

But at least the kids got an hour with the horse. They both seem smitten. Ellie says she’s going to ask for only money for gifts from now on so she can save up for her next ride.

It was a fun family outing and such a relief, frankly, to see Dominic, who just six months ago was in a body cast, riding a big horse and doing just fine.

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