Day at the Horse Ranch

Yesterday we spent a day at Lang's Horse Ranch in Mt. Vernon with Marlene's school. For several years now, the Kindergartners get to go for a day of horse riding to the ranch. The 4th Graders get to go for an overnight camp next week. Marlene's teacher, Mrs Drown, is the main organizer of this event. For the last month the children have been learning everything about horses. Mrs Drown's daughter even brought their horse Salsa to the school one day, so everyone got to see a real horse. They have been learning about saddles, tacking, and grooming.

Finally yesterday was the day to go to the ranch. After lunch about 180 people (40 kindergartners and their families) left John Rogers to drive north to Mt. Vernon. Divided in 6 groups we went through several stations like grooming, tacking, security, riding, snack, art project, and nature walk. The main event, off course, was the 30 minute horse/pony ride on the forest trails. Marlene rode a - really tall - pony named Cinnamon, and my horse's name was Sophie. Once seated in the saddle, I did not fell so sure about this, since this beast could have gone anywhere with me. Off course, going on these rides, is what these animals do. Some children were a bit afraid, so someone was leading their ponies, but Marlene did very well on her own. She was steering this pony like this is all she does. She looked very natural on it. We will have to revisit this situation when the time comes.

After everyone had gone through all the stations we had a fabulous dinner with barbecued chicken prepared by Mrs Scott, the schools cook. Everyone had a great time. Unfortunately it started to rain just as we had dinner. It got worse as time went on, and so we could not have the camp fires. We were back in Seattle by 8pm with some very tired children.