saturday means riding lessons

sabin started riding lessons about two months ago. we go every saturday to a big riding school near where we live. sabin started out with the very beginners and has already "graduated" to the next level. she's absolutely loving it. this makes her mom, who grew up with horses, very happy. and grandma in south dakota is ecstatic! grandpa in south dakota is warning against small girls who will soon want a horse of their own. he says it's a slippery slope. he's probably right.

sabin's learning to ride "english" as we call it in the US--with an english saddle, rather than a western (cowboy-style) one. here are some scenes from her lessons:

lesson 1, riding silverstar

lesson 2 - silverstar again

that's sabin's instructor, christina

we like her.

she's giving sabin a little lesson in posting the trot

at lesson 3 there was a little jump!

that was exciting

silverstar is an awesome lesson horse.

there are a variety of sizes of horses

and sizes of students at the riding lessons.

lesson 4 meant a little tour outside.

at lesson 5, it was nice enough to ride outdoors

at lesson 6, we rode outdoors too.

this time on dizzy.

and yesterday, sabin rode milton for the first time

he needs a little crack of the whip

so christina showed sabin how to hold it.

riding is giving sabin a new confidence and she's really a natural at it. she's fearless and lucky that nothing scary has happened on any of the occasions. milton was the zippiest horse she's ridden, but she handled him very well. we're really fortunate that christina, her teacher, is just awesome--she's matter-of-fact and instills a quiet calm in the kids.  we think she's great. and the school horses are really good too...other than milton trying to bite me as i gave sabin a leg up yesterday, they have surprisingly few bad habits. it's a real pleasure to go every saturday. and if sabin keeps it up, we're going to look for a horse for her at the end of the summer. it might be that her mom would like to ride again as well.