SO proud...

Yes, I'll admit that I was that 8 year-old-girl who was obsessed with horses. I took riding lessons, fantasized about owning my own palomino, and read every horse book I could find. And when I finally got my own horse 6 years later, I was a very happy girl. I rode often for a couple of years until my horse died, I got a drivers license and work/drama/guys got in the way. I still love to ride, but don't get to go very often.

I've been eagerly awaiting the time that Max would be ready to ride. And I really expected that he'd get all excited about it, and then back out at the last minute. But last weekend we went up to spend the weekend at my parents' cabin, and we decided to give it a shot. We had talked about the horses all week, and I asked him if he wanted to try and ride one and he would shout "Yes I do!" Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

Sunday morning Max woke up in a great mood, and all he wanted to do was ride the four-wheeler and the horse. He, Dan, and Papa (my dad) went out and rode the four wheeler for about 30 minutes, and we planned on taking him inside to warm up before we thought about riding. But Max had other ideas. He was more than ready to go right then. Again, I was sure that once we got Buck all saddled up, he would change his mind.

You know what? He didn't. Papa saddled Buck, I hopped on, and he came right on up into the saddle with me. Not a moment of hesitation or fear. He did great! Papa lead us around the field, down the hill, around the pond, and back up the hill. Max took it all very seriously, and was not at all interested in getting down. Once he was sitting pretty well, I got off, and he sat way up there on that big horse all by himself. At that point, I was far more afraid than he was. He was having a great time. And eventually we had to work hard to convince him to get off.

It was so wonderful - he had a great time, I had a blast, and you could see Papa planning future horse trips with his grandson. I was just so proud of Max.