I want a horse.

Hi!

Last weekend, my brother invited me to go to Snowflake AZ with him and his wife and her sister. At the last possible minute, I decided to go with them. It ended up being really fun, despite the sleep deprivation.

We left Friday late morning, and I was entertained the whole time just by the scenery out my window. I was first amazed at how much snow and water there still was in the canyon, and that Duck Creek was a swamp! I don't think I have ever seen so much water out there before. I didn't get any pictures of it unfortunately. I did take these once we got into the Arizona landscapes though:




We arrived at our destination after just over 7 hours. It was a long drive, but I was ok with it. At Taley's sister's house, I was re-introduced to her family. The only other time I had seen most of them was at the wedding in September. I really like them. They really do treat me just like I am a part of their family, so it's fun.

After dinner came the exciting part! Well, for me anyway. A big part of the reason why I was invited to go in the first place was because Taley found out how much I like horses. I have since I was pretty little. There used to be horses in a field pretty much across the street from my house (where there are now townhomes) and I loved to go feed them and pet them. It was probably my favorite summer activity, and I am pretty sure that my family and friends got awful tired of it! I also collected little plastic horses and read horse books, and my favorite movie was Black Beauty.

Anyway, we went to the fairgrounds to ride. I was kind of nervous, but I didn't want Dorito (a Gelding, I just learned) the horse to know that, so I practiced my performance nerve calming state of mind tactics. This horse is fairly new to Cresha (Taley's sister), and has a tendency to be a little pushy. "Great," I thought. Anyway, I was instructed on how to mount him (though I had ridden a horse once before, so this part I did know a wee bit about), and the silly creature kept trying to move away from me! Finally I just kind of made a jump for it and got in the saddle.


I then was given a crash course in riding (I wasn't given any instruction on my ride in high school, and was on a very docile old mare then) and was off to the arena.



I had trouble getting the silly beast to go in the fenced area we were aiming for, but Cresha helped lead him in (she rode the pony). We went around once, no problem. But when we got the the fence opening again, Dorito decided it would be a good idea to go out. I tried to lead him back in, but he just kept going out. I tried pulling the reins to stop him and turning them in the direction of the arena, but he just wouldn't listen. He started getting kind of jumpy and, I would imagine, frustrated because I didn't really know what to do, but I managed to stay calm. I could feel him starting to hop a little, and the kids said he nearly bucked, but I tried to just talk to him and keep him in some semblance of control. Somehow, he did eventually calm down, and Cresha got him turned back in the right direction for me.


After that, it was pretty easy. And I had a blast through the whole experience. And now I have decided that I want to marry a man who knows at least enough about horses that we can own some :) Oh, Carl wouldn't ride Dorito, but he did ride the pony (sorry about the bad picture). He looked pretty funny!





The next day, the family went to the Snowflake Temple. I went along and walked around the grounds and took some pictures. It got really windy, so I mostly sat in the back to hide from the wind. It was pretty regardless though, and I did get some good pictures (after fighting with my camera's focus, which I swear sometimes is broken).



That evening, we went to the field where the horses stay, because Cresha was trying out a new horse. It was here that I really fell in love. With a horse. He was 3 years old, and tall, and gentle, and gorgeous! Unfortunately, he had already been sold for 6K. Anyhow, I had fun texting Michelle that I was bringing him home. I didn't get any pictures of him, but he looked something like this, but with less black in his coat and on his legs:



That night we (meaning me and Cresha and her family, since I was the only one staying with them) had an ice cream adventure. It involved going to several places to get ice cream that ended up being either closed or out of ice cream, and lots of laughs. I am not a great storyteller, so I will skip the details, but it was very fun.

Sunday morning we went to church and came home. There were some really cool clouds on the way:



And we made a dam stop (sorry, couldn't help it) where I got this photo (and later played with its coloring, a lot.).

The end!