The Griswold's Family Vacation (post 3 of 8): Pony Park

This was something I was really excited about, mainly for the kids.  Both of our boys love animals.  I scheduled an appointment for our two kids to ride a pony, and by pony, I was assuming that it was literally going to be a small pony.  Well, to my surprise, they were able to ride the big horses.  They didn't have any smaller ones at the park that I could see, except for a donkey.  And, as you can imagine, Landon loved him because of the movie Shrek.  We all gave our best Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers impersonations as soon as we spotted him on the other side of the fence.

Before the riding began, and as an added bonus, the kids were able to groom the horses.  Fancy was the name of the horse that the kids rode.  She was very gentle and loved the attention.  Also, before arriving at my sister's house the first day, she went out and bought the boys a hat to wear to the park.  They weren't allowed to wear them on the horse, but I made sure to get a few pictures of them in the hats before I missed my window.  You know, because having two highly distracted, uncooperative boys could go badly in an instant in the photo world. 

The ride was awesome!  Landon and Liam were all smiles.  The trainer even let Landon lead the horse when it came time for Liam to ride.  I know he felt special going by the proud look on his face.  The trainer let Landon ride the horse by himself (without the lead) when it was his turn.  She was giving him quick riding lessons, mainly how to steer the horse, how to get the horse to stop and go, and how to walk around poles.

After the ride was over, we visited with the other horses and the donkey I mentioned earlier.  The trainers let their goat run loose so that Liam could pet and feed him.  I guess he wasn't finished riding animals because he tried to ride the goat!  The goat didn't seem to mind much, though.  Maybe he's used to it. 

Oh, and here is where I should elaborate more on the shoes.  Normally, for this kind of vacation you wouldn't need anything other than flip flops and water shoes, but I didn't think about bringing tennis shoes.  They take up a lot of space in the suitcases and they hold sand like crazy.  When I made this appointment before leaving home, I still only had the beach in mind.  Luckily, the trainers were nice enough to let us get by without close-toed shoes for the rides (at least Landon).  We were ecstatic that something so small didn't ruin this part of our trip.  Thank you, RBPP!

As you can see, wearing flip flops while riding a horse does look a bit funny/awkward.  Still fun, though.