My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray

Some cowgirls are made; others are born. Much to our surprise, Clara is something of a born cowgirl. We already knew how much she loved horses, since we have some friendly neighborhood equines we like to visit when we go on walks. But Jeremy and I were both pretty sure she would not get close enough to even touch a horse, let alone to ride one. This is partly based on the fact that we ourselves have an extremely healthy respect (read: fear) of getting close to a horse, and it's also based on the fact that Clara is terrified of other scary animals, like poodles and worms.



But Clara has always been full of surprises, and when the horseback riding segment of her little friend's birthday party arrived yesterday, she was the most eager and fearless horsewoman we've ever seen. She took several turns around the corral on Shadow, talking to everyone she passed saying, "Look at me! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" When her turn on Shadow was done, she immediately demanded, "I need to ride that Princess horse!" So when all the other kids had finished their turns, Clara got a second ride on Princess. Only one thing could've made the event perfect for her: if she could do it all by herself. She kept telling Jeremy that she wanted everyone to let go of the horse and let her ride: "I can ride with no rope to go faster and faster and faster!" Several of the adults suggested that we buy her a horse and give her riding lessons. We'll wait for her to conquer her fear of poodles first.