Horsing around

Today was mother's day - both in the USA and in Germany. Our upstairs neighbor invited Daphne and Julia to go horseback riding earlier in the week.


The boys had the choice of going to the parade for Munich's soccer team's championship in the German league or to go with the girls and they chose horses. David wanted to try and ride a horse for the first time - Brian didn't.
The kids began by quickly brushing down the horse. He's a 25 year-old male by the name of Atti.
Here, David is excited to be using the brushes.

Irmi - our neighbor suggested that Daphne go first since she clearly would be able to teach the children what to do. Daph didn't have the heart to explain that she was not an expert but she mounted Atti and rode nicely.

Julia was next and absolutely bounded up to the horse. She was happy and confident and did a nice job of looking like this was easy. We remarked that her smile was the largest we have seen in Germany.

Dave was next and... to his credit had never been on anything except a tired old pony. He game fully mounted the full size horse and tried to ride. With young man legs and no experience, it wasn't fun to watch. He bounced around in the saddle without any chance of control or dignity yet he smiled the entire time.
Looking at the spectators you can see who was prepared to participate. My favorite moment was when David looked over at a painted horse of white and brown and mistook it for a cow. He said excitedly, "look, a milk cow!" and our host said in a soft voice, "no, that's a horse."

Daphne just looked at me and said, "...city kid."

Brian can't understand the attraction to these animals who only seem to attract women and horseflies.