Like always, I have been too long in posting. :). I tend to not post too often... Anyways, let's get on with the post ;).
In January we had a surprise party for my older siblings (it was great!), then celebrated two more birthdays that month (Dad's and Daniel's). We happened to have several snow days, and on one of those days, we had eight inches! It lasted the majority of that week! We went to a monster truck show and it was pretty cool. For Daniel's we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's. We hadn't been there since his.... 5th? 6th? birthday.... anyways, it had been several years. We were slightly concerned about going, considering that the last time we went we came home very sick. This time, we armed ourselves with several large bottles of hand sanitizer :). And we all stayed well!
I have been continuing to work with Winston, and now I also have another horse that I can ride whenever I want. Her name is Breeze. I also am going to be teaching my Mom how to ride! This morning Zachary took Lauren and I to the barn. Lauren rode Breeze and I rode Winston. When I was riding Winston bareback (one of us had to ride bareback since Winston and Breeze use the same saddle), he was perfect and calm (I even trotted him, which I hadn't done bareback before). After Lauren was done riding Breeze, I got on her a bit. She is a great horse, small compared to Winston, and has a great walk and trot. Her only problem is her stopping and cantering. She doesn't like to stop when asked too, and her canter is fast and reckless. So I guess I now have two horses with 'issues' to solve. After riding Breeze a bit, I put the saddle on Winston. As soon as I mounted up, he started acting up. I could tell he was a ticking time bomb. I made him stay at a walk and trot, and when his trot got a bit too fast, I had him stop and back up, which he did. But as soon as I rewarded him with a bit of slack in the reigns, he took off from a stand still into a huge, fast canter. Trust me, he has a fast canter. When he canters, no one can stop him unless he wants to stop. So he cantered around the arena eight or nine times before finally listening to me and stopping. And he wasn't even breathing hard after that! That horse is fast and has lots of endurance, that's for sure! I'm wondering if he has a bit of Thoroughbred in him. I already know he most likely has some Quarter Horse, and if he has both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse, that would explain his speed and his endurance (speed from Quarter Horse, endurance from Thoroughbred). I got him to calm down a bit and made him walk around a while before I got off. Sometimes, he can be the brattiest, most head-strong horse around! But I still love him.
Oh! I forgot to mention that we FINALLY got and iMac! Yeah! And my parents got iPhones, and let me tell you, it is slightly... weird... to see my own Mom walking around staring at a iPhone screen! And texting her? Even weirder. My Mom never texted with her old phone... so now it's taking some getting used to ;).
Over the past two weeks I was a bit sick. But I'm well now!
Yesterday I went to the barn for a riding lesson. Winston was way out in the far corner of the pasture, so I got to slog through all the mud and rain puddles to go get him. And then he was all muddy. And shedding... so it took me a while to get him cleaned up enough to saddle him. Our lesson went pretty well though.
Last night I went to a class to learn Adult CPR. That was quite interesting, considering it was from 6-10pm and the only ones in the class were me, a boy that lives across the street from me, and another boy. Quite fun... depending on what your definition of 'fun' is.
Last night we also had some friends over to spend the night at our house... that was interesting, considering that Daniel slept in my room, so at 7:30 this morning he woke me up... by petting my head...
Today it's warm outside and really pretty. But sadly, it doesn't look like I will get to go to the barn to ride...
Well, I suppose that is all for now! I hope all of my readers are enjoying the life God has blessed them with (and I hope this post wasn't too boring!).
Until next time,
Hannah Joy :)
Our snow fort! I love how the fence color turned out in contrast to all the snow.
Our tree fort buried in snow.
