I've always loved...

horses. I never was around horses growing up, but I have always admired horses. In college I took a horseback riding class and I learned to ride in the English saddle and the Western saddle. It was so much fun...and I even fell off the horse one day because he decided to go right into a run before the trot. While I was working as a teacher in the area of special education, I learned a little about horseback riding therapy and I thought that would be perfect for me...horses and kids. That never did work out because God had other paths for me and I am totally okay with that. So imagine my surprise last weekend when a friend of ours tells me that he is giving me a horse. Just like that. We were talking about seeing the Lippizaners while in Florida and he said he had been meaning to tell me that he wanted to give me a horse. The horse was born in October of last year. Wow. It took a while to sink in and now I am trying to figure out what to do! We went to meet our colt today...he is brown with a white star on his forhead and black on his lower legs. He is quite handsome even though he is no special breed. He has not been around people yet, so he is very shy. I took carrots with me and the other 4 horses loved me for it. Our colt, however, was too shy to even come close enough to sniff the carrots. I was able to touch his hindquarters very quickly, but that was it. There is another colt with him that has been around people more and she kept nudging me, nibbling on my hand, and pulling on my shirt and jeans for more carrots. She just wouldn't accept the fact that they were all gone. So, I guess we need to make many more trips out to see our boy so he will get used to us. I also need to find someone who can break him when the time comes. And I need to read about horses! Here are some pictures of the newest member of our family...he doesn't have name yet, but we are working on it!

The girl colt is the one looking away from the camera.