My First Horse Riding Lesson

My First Horse Riding Lesson

On the day of my first horse lesson I was amped and nervous to learn.  I tried to find the perfect outfit to wear to lessons.  If you’re going to do something, you mine as well look good doing it. I dug through my closet trying to find shoes to wear when I came across a pair of boots.  I had purchased them at Dillard’s a while back, they weren’t real cowboy boots but they would have to work.  I showed up a little early and got out of my car feeling a little awkward but I was as excited as a little kid on Christmas.  As I introduced myself to Shana she mentioned she was glad I had worn boots.  I laughed and told her I had bought them at Dillard’s but they were the only thing I had close to cowboy boots.  At this point I can only imagine she was thinking… after all I’m just a want to be cowgirl and she is the real deal. 

My first lesson consisted of getting the horse, Holy Sam, out of the pasture, tying knots and grooming.  I should have taken girl scouts because I’m not very good at tying knots.  Just being around Holy Sam was a new experience.  Shana taught me how to walk around behind him by touching him.  I had a black jacket on and Holy Sam is a white horse.  I didn’t like getting white horse hair on my jacket and tried not to touch him too much.  This is something I’m working on getting over.  I had to clean his hooves out, which really smelt bad.  The manure scent was overwhelming.  I asked Shana if you ever get over the smell.  Once again something I’m working on.  I was disappointed I didn’t get to ride Holy Sam the first night of lessons but felt like I had learned a lot. First lesson was a success.

A New Adventure

About a month ago I decided I wanted a horse.  I’m not going to lie, I don’t know the first thing about riding a horse, little lone owning a horse.  I talked it over with my coworkers, all of which think I’m crazy but one of them mentioned I should call my Uncle Mike and see if he wanted to sell his horses since he has been working out of town.  I called him and asked…. But he didn’t want to get rid of his horses.   Go figure.  He suggested I call my great-uncle Gary and see if he knew of any horses for sale.  My Uncle Gary is a character, I called him and our conversation started out like this:

Me:  I’m interested in buying some horses

Gary:  Are you dumb? Do you want to look like me? You’re too old to learn to ride horses.  When you’re young you bounce, when you’re old you break.

Gary invited me over to ride his horses and see if I was seriously interested.  I couldn’t wait! I went the very next day.  He showed me his horses and saddled one up.  My husband (Rick) helped Gary with the saddling but made the mistake of doing the back cinch up first which set the horse off.  Come to find out there is a certain order that has to be followed when putting a saddle on the horse.  So with the horse saddled up I jumped on.  Gary was instructing me how to ride the horse.  I got stuck in the corner and couldn’t get the horse to back up.  After all this is Gary’s horse and he was not too keen on having someone else on him.  With Gary and Rick B.S.ing about horses I sat stuck in the corner, thinking to myself is this really something I want to get into? But Gary had the best suggestion; I should take horse riding lessons.  Perfect idea!  He set me up with a trainer, Shana, but she was out of town and I had to wait over a week before I could start lessons.  The anticipation was killing me.

Chickens

A few years back we decided to get chickens.  This would be our first adventure of my want to be farm girl life.  My husband built a chicken coop, but at this point I was not totally committed.  I made him make a coop that we could use as a shed if the chicken adventure did not work out.  We went to the local farm store and picked out 6 tiny chicks.  The chicks were adorable and like any proud chicken farmer I decided they each need a name.  I opted for lady names and hoped we didn’t get any roosters.  I introduced Margo, Thelma, Melva, Lola, Sally and Darla to the world. 

Chicken Coop

I enjoyed watching my baby chicks grow into chickens and develop personalities.  Yes they all have personalities.  Margo follows me around and lets me pick her up.  Lola and Sally, well that’s a story for another time.  They all come to the sound of a chip bag ruffling since I have fed them stale chips from day one.  Since I did not know one thing about raising chickens it has been quite the experience.  I bother the guys at the local farm store on a real regular basis and scour the Internet for answers to the many questions I still continue to have.  I really think the guys at the farm store run when they see me coming.  Thank goodness for the awesome forum on backyard chickens and the guys at IFA, both have helped me answer a ton of questions. 

 

A little introduction

I grew up in a small town in Utah, inside the city limits.  The closest I came to being raised around a farm was my great grandma Mimi, when I was little she had chickens, peacocks and a large garden.  My parents were more into horsepower than any sort of real horse.  Sure we had a family dog, tried out hamsters and rabbits both which were eventually “set free.”  I have always had a draw to the farm life and after moving away from small town Utah and trying out a fewer bigger  cities, following my dreams and having way too much fun I decided to move back to small town Utah and work at the family business.

It was a big adjustment; I had enjoyed the luxuries of a bigger town, shopping, good restaurants and a night life to name a few.  All of which my hometown is lacking.  I settled down, met a nice guy and got married and somewhere along the way I decided I want to be a farmgirl.  We have 2 dogs, 9 chickens and one recently purchased horse. 

I've never been a girly girl per say... but I do like girly things.  I grew up the only girl in the family so I always tagged along with my brothers and did guy things so I didn't have to miss out on anything.  I bought my first Harley Davidson when I was 17 and have traveled the western United States with my Dad, brothers and friends where I was normally the only girl to go on road trips. So in some ways I'm girly and other ways I'm not.  I have a weakness for shoes, purses and cars.  I decided to start a blog because I'm not very good at this farmgirl stuff and always have stories of how not good I am.  Life is an adventure, this is mine.