Last month my friend, Tim, invited me and Madelyn to go horseback riding at his place. He is a competitive team roper in his spare time and always has an extra horse or two to spare. I warned him that it had been years since I had been on a horse and Madelyn only had been on a horse twice in her life so we needed gentle, nearly dead horses to ride. Each of the horses are used for team roping but are gentle giants when not competing. Interestingly the horses that Madelyn and I were on were not fans of the horse Tim was riding and anytime my horse got near Tim's he would start jumping around and acting like a fool. So Tim thought it would be best if we traded. Talk about change, the "new" horse would barely walk without being kicked let alone walk. I was surprised he was the main horse Tim rode for team roping, apparently he knows the difference between work and pleasure. Reminds me of our old horse Byrd. She knew when my dad was on her it was time to work when DeAnn or I were riding her it was time for play.

 Meeting "Heavy Duty." He is definitely a gentle giant.

Tim adjusting her stirrups

 The view from my horse

Saying good bye.

 

 

We enjoyed our evening of riding horses. Madelyn LOVED it and was ready to get out of the arena and go to the pasture for riding. But I wasn't quite ready to let her have that much space to roam when she is just learning the "ropes" of riding. She continues to ask when she gets to ride Heavy Duty again and maybe in the spring we will schedule another ride.