Zoya Rides a Horse!

Zoya is sort of obsessed with horses! But until today she had never interacted with a real horse! We have a bouncy horse she loves to ride, we have the carousel at the zoo that she has a love/scared-to-death relationship with, and lately Zoya has been putting her stuffed Mickey and Minnie on various household objects and pretending they are riding a horse! I'm not sure exactly where this obsession started, but I thought it'd be fun to give horseback riding a try!

We found a great therapeutic riding center that allows younger children to ride. So this morning we took a trip out there. I'll be honest, I had pictures of Zoya clinging to me like she sometimes does on the carousel. I had prepared myself for the worst, but followed our motto, "If you never try how will you know?" So we gave it a shot! My hope was that she would just pet the horse and if she just did that it would have been a successful first trip!

Zoya gets anxious with new experiences, but as we grow together, we're learning how to decrease that anxiety for her....part of this includes approaching new experiences in teeny-tiny steps and having a "no pressure approach." That means that we have to be okay knowing she might need more time until she is comfortable with a new experience, and that the first time doing something new might not always be a roaring success. Just having this attitude alone takes a lot of pressure off us and off Zoya. That girl picks up on EVERYTHING, and if she feels pressured to do something when she isn't ready, well you might as well just forget about it. If only we would have realized this sooner, we could have saved ourselves and Zoya a lot of stress and anxiety. But, hey, we're learning as we go!

Anyways, I'm happy to report that this new experience was a roaring success! Zoya got to visit with some of the horses and pet them. She was hesitant at first, but slow and steady won the race! She watched other kids get on the horse and said very confidently, "ME DO!" And I pulled the ol' sibling-card! I said, "Oh really? YOU want a turn? Who should have a turn? Mila? Mila wants a turn." Zoya said "NO, ME!" And I said, "Oh, okay I guess you can have a turn if you really want to." I love her confident-yet-still needs-mama stage. Because she was so excited to get on that horse but she still needed me to reassure her and walk along side her! She giggled nervously as the large dog horse started moving. She told the horse "walk on" and "woah" except every time the horse moved she said "WOAH!" because she was so excited so they were trying to teach her that "woah" means "stop" to a horse LOL. Her horse's name was Maple and she thought he was so cool!

Looking at the horses (Minnie Mouse along for security!)

She asked if he was eating Pretzels (probably because that's her favorite snack!)

Checking out Maple from a distance

Okay, maybe it's not so bad!

Time to do this without mama's arms!

And a little closer

All angles here!

Meeting another horse

Minnie's turn to pet the horse

My favorite picture! She thought his teeth were cool after she got over the initial shock..he was breathing so hard it was like we were in a wind tunnel for a minute!

Getting ready to ride, trying on her helmet!

Holding on to mama...she was so ready but still a little nervous!

She's doing it!

Ready to go!

There is a smile!!

Saying "Walk On"

Outside!

Getting ready to ride through the woods!

And we're back!

I think she had a good time!!