Miss Coryn turns Five!

This morning Coryn awoke to a birthday spread prepared by Earlybird Jo: table cloth, napkins, red plates and presents. Her birthday breakfast included mini cupcakes from GG, red velvet cake balls made by Mom, Jo and Cokes, strawberries and waffles made by Dad. 

After breakfast, Coryn opened her gifts. She found a clue to her surprise birthday outing inside her new marker box. The clue had a drawing of a horse and said: Be ready at 1:30pm. Coryn guessed the outing was going horseback riding.

She was right! We drove 10 minutes to Iron Horse Polo Stables for Coryn's first horseback riding lesson with Natasha, the friendly owner, and Blackberry, the most gentle horse. 

Coryn was a little nervous to be so close to such a big animal, but Jo's eagerness quickly rubbed off. They both helped groom Blackberry until her coat was a shiny black and clean out her hooves before putting on the saddle and bridle. 

Jo took over photographer duty and snapped these photos of Coryn riding Blackberry. After 20 minutes of learning how to sit in the saddle, hold the reins and use the stop command, Coryn said she was ready to try trotting. When the horse picked up the pace, Coryn held tight to the saddle while her helmet flopped on her head, sometimes her feet slid out of the stirrups. Still, she was smiling every minute. 

At the tail end of the lesson, Natasha asked Coryn if she'd like to give Jo a chance to ride Blackberry. Coryn thought about it while she rode around the arena a couple times. Cokes decided Jo could have a turn and Natasha helped her dismount. Natasha lengthen the stirrups and Jo jumped right in the saddle. Now it was Coryn's turn to be photographer. Jo only had a few minutes of riding, but did get a chance to trot a few times. Jo says she wants to go back for 20 more lessons. And Coryn says she wants to go back to feed the horse more treats. 

Before leaving Natasha let each girl pick out an old horseshoe to take home for good luck. Jo's horseshoe was smooth, but Coryn's had two nubs. Its a special shoe for a horse to wear while playing polo to keep it from sliding when stopping quickly. Natasha sent us home with tickets to see her and her husband ride with the Milwaukee Polo Club. There are only two games left this season. The field is right down the road in Hartland, so hopefully we can make it to one. Who wants to join us?