Horse farm in December?

Trey's preschool class had a field trip yesterday to Strides to Success which is a horse farm that specializes in therapy for special needs kids and behavioral issues. It was a really cool idea and a really neat little place. But not when it's 20 degrees with a windchill of -5. In retrospect, I bet the school is wondering why they planned this field trip for the coldest time of year. It would have been really cool if they could have gone out to the pastures and watched the horses. As it was, all the kids were kept in the (un-heated) barn where there were 3 horses in stalls (that they weren't tall enough to see into) and in a classroom. I also had Emerson with me thinking she would like to see the horses too. Well she did.....for approximately 30 seconds. Too bad the field trip was an hour and a half long. Next time, we'll get a sitter for her.

Trey really liked it though he was disappointed that he didn't get to sit on the horses like he thought he would. He asked me this morning if we could go somewhere where you're allowed to sit on the horses. I told him, yes definitely, we should absolutely find somewhere we can go horse-back riding. Now he's concerned that "we don't have the right gear" (his words). When I asked him what we needed, he told me, "a saddle, a string to hold the saddle on, and a rope to steer and stop the horse." Wow, I guess HE was paying attention to the presentation at the farm while I chased Emerson around. Anyone know of a stable that lets you ride horses on the west side of Indy? When I was growing up, a lot of people I hung out with had horses. We went riding a lot when I was in high school. I don't have those connections up here though so I think we have to go the stable route. That's probably safer than the way we used to do it anyway. There was usually a lot of beer involved and really steep hills. Not sure how no one ever got hurt!

I don't really have any pictures to share from the field trip. Two-year-old runaway + taking off and putting on coats, hats, and gloves for three people = not many photo ops. But we did get to make a horse sock puppet that Trey named 'Fred'. Fred is awesome and has been part of many adventures already. In fact, Woody is riding around on him right now. So, the day wasn't a total loss!