After hours upon hours of begging my parents to let Kenzie come ride with me my parents finally gave in.  We were so so so excited on the ride up to Nana's house(where we keep the horses), we couldn't stop grinning for a second.  As soon as we got there we jumped out of the truck and she followed me around to the back of the house where the main pasture is.  This was routine for me of course but having her there too was just incredible for both of us:)  I, of course, was trying to impress my best friend with my beloved horses so I made the stupid decision to stuff her pockets and hands full of treats and shove her out into the pasture to fend for herself hahaha!  Boy was that a sight.  I was out there with her, equally loaded with those tasty apple flavored horse delicacies.  Those horses did all but rip our clothes off!  Seeing my plan crumble I quickly ushered her through the fence swatting the horses back the whole while.  I worried anxiously about Kenzie's reaction to her introduction but her being the crazy girl she is, she was ecstatic.  She was dying to ride but due to her lack of riding experience and my parents huge apprehension to the whole situation, I took it slow and started her off with grooming.  At the time our only available steeds were Liberty and Misty so I stuck Kenzie with the pretty boy suck up;)  She fell in love with him at first sight (just like everyone else does) and was so happy to find that he was hers for the weekend.  After grooming we saddled 'em up.  I made sure Kenz did all the work, I was determined for her to get as much out of this experience as possible.  Before setting out with our horsey friend Stacy, I had her ride Lib around the property and got her sed to the motions.  (By the way it was maybe... 35 degrees outside in chilly December, and Kenzie hates nothing more than the cold.  I offered to wait on riding out but she insisted we go.  Of course.)  Finally we were ready to get out there!  Yay!  We had a great, long ride down miles of old country road and the horses gave us no problems whatsoever... until the last few minutes of the home stretch.  For the whole ride Liberty insisted he keep his nose right in Misty's butt and she just couldn't stand it anymore.... Hahaha.  She- out of NO WHERE- she kicked him right in the chest causing him to rear up and dump poor lil Kenzie right on the asphalt.  AHHH!!!!  First thought is: She's gonna die!  Second thought: I'm gonna die!  Once again... AHHHHHHHH!!!  After the shock wore off she stood up... with a smile on her face and got back on lol.  Crazy girl.  :)

Sooo... It's been a while but Kenz is finally back and I've spent the whole preceding week planning my lesson program:)  I was on a mission hahaha... a mission to make Kenzie a good rider.  I personally think the biggest key to riding is balance and the best way to achieve balance on a horse is to ride bareback.  At the time, Liberty was a tad lame so we only had Misty-girl to work with.  We got her all brushed and put her bridle on then off to the round pen we went.  If I recall right, Misty gave us quite a time letting Kenzie get on from the fence... that's Misty for ya haha.  Kenzie was such a skeptic about riding my lovely yet green two year old bareback but I, being as worry less as possible was sooo excited:)  I started off simple, just showing her how to "steer" haha and how much pressure to use and so on.  After that I had her walk and soon she was even trotting... bareback!  The really funny thing is I couldn't even trot bareback!  Haha but anyway, I thought this was the best way to make her a good rider from the start.  We had a great time... Misty didn't act up and Kenzie never fell off.  So... nothing exciting there but fun never-the-less:)

It was a beautiful summer day and a group of us decided to go out and ride.  It was me (Amanda), Stacy, Leckey, and Larry.  Stacy is just a horsey friend of mine, actually the reason I fell in love with horses haha (that's another story), Leckey is Stacy's charming husband and Larry is Stacy's dad (Let me tell you, this guy is the definition of Horseman).  Stacy was on Miti, her 7 year old sorrel thoroughbred ex- racer mare, Leckey was on Cherry, I think he's an 8 year old DROP DEAD GORGEOUS grey Quarter Horse gelding, Larry was on Showgirl a goofy sorrel 2 year old Quarter Horse and I, of course, was on my lovely little Misty:)  We were just ridin' along and all of the sudden we saw a grey mare loose in someone's front yard (we're out in the country of course).  She ignored us so we were just gonna ride by but then out of no where this black stallion jumps his fence and charges straight at us.  Leckey and Larry were in the front of the group so they started swingin' ropes and yelling at it but that thing would NOT go away so they jumped down and started throwing sticks and stuff but he went right through them to Cherokee... Being the only gelding in our group he was squealing and carrying on.  I watched in total shock a the stallion reared up on top of Cherry.  Thankfully that ordeal didn't go much further though, it didn't take the ol' boy too long to realize that my darling little girl was... in heat.  Yep that's right.  Yay...  Ha.  As soon as he'd been in sight Misty was totally AWOL.  She was insane.  Poor Stacy tried to stay between us but Miti wasn't faring so well either.  He came up to us and bowed his head up, lookin' all purdy and then WHAMMY I smacked him right upside the head hahaha so he receded long enough for me to take off.  Stacy went when I did but Leckey and Larry stayed back for just a bit longer and scared him off before following suit.  Haha as we took off rather blindly we ran straight into the forest... not the greatest idea... hahaha.  After many whacks by branches in the face and endless wandering we did find our way to the road and got on home to tell all about our exciting adventure:)  That is one ride I will never forget.

Well Kenzie's been up to Nana's a few times, she knows the ropes and has also taken a few lessons back home so dad finally gave us to okay to ride of the property.  We were totally excited as we took a short trip down the road then across the street to the property of some good friends of ours.  We were trottin' around havin' a great ol' time when Liberty took off with Kenzie.  I looked back just in time to see Kenz being swept off his back by the low tree branch that he ran straight under.  This is what was going through my head: Uhhh... CRAP.  I stopped Misty and we whirled around and ran back to her.  Are you okay? I asked frantically as out of the corner of my eye Liberty was out in the open bucking like a mad man.  Her words crushed me: It's broken.  My face drained as I said I doubt it is, maybe it's just a sprain.  She gave me a look right before I turned Misty around and it was so sure I couldn't even doubt it.  I ran up beside Liberty, grabbed his reins and whoa'd them both- TOTAL John Wayne moment:).  We turned around and as we were trotting back I took a second to silently thank Misty for cooperating with me and doing exactly what I needed her to do.  Ha.  Like she was gonna let me off that easy. She stopped suddenly and pulled her infamous move... that's right folks, my darling little horse laid down.  Sighhh... COME ON.  At this point I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.  I got her up and went and caught Lib who had wandered off again then went back to poor Kenzie who was lying on the ground where I left her, clutching her hurting little wing... Now let's all stop and say awww, hahaha now back to the story.  So after a brief conversation we decided that she couldn't ride back so she walked back (yes I called home and no one answered:/) while I led Lib from Misty.  Nana came out just as we reached the property and took Kenz in while I unsaddled Liberty and put him away quickly.  I still had to go back and find her phone which had fallen out at some point so I was hurrying, I wanted to get in and check on my besty.  I literally raced Misty back after I had found the phone and actually passed a car!  Hahaha Misty actually is quite the speed demon.  But aside from that I unsaddled her and gave her a good rub and some treats before putting her up then rushed in to see the damage.  Darling ol' Nana had her iced and comfortable in the living room and she wasn't even crying haha!  She told us about hearing the crack of her wrist as it broke... apparently she landed right on it:(  But anyways... gave her some pain pills and sent her home where the doctor told us that she had dislocated and broken her wrist!  Yikes and she never even cried haha...  So anyways... She recently came up for the first time since then and got to ride Misty.  Rode her like a pro:)  Kenzie's pretty tough... a true cowgirl:)  Love ya Kenz