best 20 bucks I spent all week

That’s Sophie the Brave on the huge horse! Can you believe it?

When she saw how big Carmen (that’s the horse) was, she said, in this tiny voice, “Mommy, I was thinking maybe a smaller horse would be better.” But Anne, the instructor, said Carmen was the most gentle of all the horses, and Sophie petted her on the nose, and after that it was love.

Here is the very first minute she was up there:

You can’t see it but she has this tiny, closed-lipped smile on that she gets when she is really excited but holding it all in. Anne was great, calm and patient. She showed Sophie “Walk!” and “Whoa!”, how to turn, how to stand in the stirrups, how to hold her feet, and how to hold the reins. Sophie played it all cool until she got off the horse and then she did this ecstatic dance, giggling like a little maniac, saying, “Anne said next time I can ride her on my own!” She was SO HAPPY.

Next week, the Olympics!

And here is Luc, still too small to actually ride, but he was THRILLED to get in the saddle for a minute:

I’m telling you, for twenty bucks I got to give someone a lifetime happy memory! What a rush! I feel so powerful!