Horsin’ around

Like many girls her age, my foster daughter is a horse freak. I mean, she gets really, really, really, excited about the idea of horses. Me? I’m not really into them so much. I mean, I like them and all, but I don’t get excited about them. I don’t think I ever did. (Cats are another matter, however.)

Anyhow, now that the weather is warming (Yay!) and the kid is getting ready to move on to her new, permanent home (mixed emotions!) I’ve realised that I need to show her the various horsey things I’ve been thinking about showing her for a while now.

So, two weeks ago on our way home from her last visit to my homeland, we finally stopped off at the Wild Horses Monument. It’s just past Vantage along I-90 and super easy to stop for a quick hike, but it seems that we’ve never had time, we didn’t have the proper footwear with us, or access was shut because of winter weather.

The day we stopped happened to be the day after I ran 13.1 miles, so my legs weren’t too happy about the last-minute decision, but the look of excitement on the kid’s face made it worth it! She went running for the base of the hill at warp speed and if she could have managed that pace for the hike, she would have!

Once at the top, she had to touch and climb on each and every horse. It was great fun to watch her excitement – just as I’ve enjoyed watching the excitement with all of my nieces and nephews when I’ve taken them. I just never get bored of the hike and I know that it made that last drive from my homeland even more meaningful to her!

Then today we were going to go to the WSU Art Museum to watch the Summer Solstice String Quartet. But when I mentioned it the kid looked only mildly excited. So I asked if she’d like to go to the Appaloosa Horse Museum instead. Um, yes, please!

When we got there, she was excited to watch the informational video about the horses whilst she drew a picture on the large sheet of butcher paper they had laid out. Then it was off to look at the other indoor exhibits before heading out back for galloping races and lassoing lessons with the other kids.

Sadly, there is a horse virus going around the region at the moment which means horses can’t travel around so she couldn’t see a real horse this trip. But she seemed pretty happy with the horse necklace I got her in the gift shop so that’s OK.

Anyhow, it’s weird to know that our time is coming to an end. But we both have places to go and happy futures waiting for us, so there are smiles despite the sadness. In the meantime, we have about a week to horse around a bit more. That’ll be fun…

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