Howdy All! Busy, busy, busy around these here parts as usual. I've been working in the mornings at the Y's summer camp and during the day at my nutritionist job. I'm really proud of most of my group members, they're focused and working hard to get (or stay) healthy. You go Ladies! (and a few Gents!)
About a week ago, in between heat waves, I was give an excellent opportunity... horseback riding! I tell ya, I haven't been horseback riding in a long, long time and one of The Husband's colleagues, and now my friend, Martha, works at Gateway Stables in Kennett Square, PA and asked me to join her. I was so excited! The Brandywine Valley is just beautiful and I couldn't wait.
I took this shot of the stable from atop my new BFF, Popeye, he's a big guy for sure!
These are some kids who were attending a summer camp at the stable, they did not go riding with us but I thought they were so cute that I had to take their picture. What a great camp for little girls, wouldn't you have loved that as a kid?
Here's Popeye, he's a kind old soul and treated me pretty well. I found horseback riding to be challenging as I am a "Dog Person" and quickly realized that dogs and horses are completely different. It was not intuitive to me and Popeye probably realized it but I'm sure it wasn't his first time with an inexperienced rider. Here he is thinking, "What the heck does this woman want me to do?" Isn't he sweet?
So, I got saddled up, (and by "I got saddled up" I mean Martha put all the equipment on Popeye and I watched) and we were ready...
It was a GORGEOUS day and the Brandywine Valley countryside was so lovely!
We finished about an hour later and Martha showed me how to hose down the horses and then squeegee them off. I had no idea that horses got squeegeed but I used this giant bread-crumber like tool to remove a great deal of the water from Popeye and then he got to have a snack. You can also really see in these pictures how BIG Popeye is, I am 5'8" and have boots with about a 2.5" heel on them and I look practically petite next to him. I'm so tiny. ;) 
I felt very lucky to have gone on this little trip and want to thank Martha, Gateway Stables and most of all Popeye for having me that day. Hope we can do it again someday!
Have a great weekend everyone!
