A Natural

Hope and I had fun today:

We would have had more fun if we had had some help with the pony ride.  It is difficult to walk Lee, hold on to Hope, watch where we are going (very different from "walking Lee"), and keep Lee from getting a little too fast.  I wanted to get up there with her but 1) I didn't have help to get Hope up and down and 2) with Lee's back/hips acting up, I didn't want to sit that far back on him.  Lee was a perfect gentleman other than the slight attempt to load into the open trailer in front of him.  He started dozing off there at the end when we were just standing there.  Lee also likes to stick his head in Hope's pack 'n' play for her to pet him when I'm grooming and tacking up.  They make a cute pair.  Hope was a natural.  I told her very firmly and repeatedly before we started that she needed to hold onto the saddle horn.  She looked at me with this no nonsense look like, "okay Mom, you're the boss."  And she kept her hands on the horn as if she understood every word I had said.  She would switch hands but almost constantly had at least one hand on that horn.  She would repeatedly reach up and rub his mane and neck like she was telling him he was a good boy.  And when I commented on it to the barn owner, Hope did it again right on cue.  Oh if only the barn owner, her daughter, and two friends weren't rushing out to a horse show....  Hope also moved with Lee while we were walking like she was born up there.  She only got off balance one time and that was when she was reaching back to pat Lee's back (we were standing still).  But as much as I hate to say it, she still prefers the cats.....