Happy official second day of fall!
One of the things I love about fall is going to the pumpkin patch and our church fall festival with my family. Inevitably at these things, my youngest is desperate to ride the pony. (There’s always a pony and for the low low price of usually between $6 and $10, kids under a certain weight can go around the little ring three times. My eldest is significantly annoyed that he’s too big to continue to participate.) Then, after a pony ride, he will talk about riding a pony again. Usually this tapers off by January, but not this past year. Every week or two, we’d be going about our normal life and there’d be a big sigh and then, “I really want to ride a horse.”
I’m a big fan of finding my kids interests and seeing how I can encourage-slash-feed them. So, I got online and poked around for where one might take a kid who’d like to ride a horse. Happily, there were options. And so, after a little discussion with the hubby, we signed up for a family horse lesson. And that lesson took place yesterday.
My fam on the horses. I don’t like to post my kids’ pictures online though, so they got a little facelift. As did hubs.
It was an absolute blast. When we got there, we got to meet all the horses at the stable (I think there were 17 or 18). Then we were assigned our helper and we gathered tack and our horse. We did some basic grooming, including picking mud from their feet, then put on the saddle and bridle. Then it was time to ride. It was very basic — how to start and stop and turn. We went around the ring a little, learning to weave between some barrels and practicing stopping and starting. Then we moved out of the ring to a forest trail where there were some logs to step over and mud to navigate around. We did some fun games (learning to lean over to put a ring on a construction cone while we walked by) and did a few stretches of trotting.
Everyone had fun. I was nervous about it, to be honest, having had a bad experience with horses as a kid at camp, but I think this may have laid those horse fears to rest. I’m not sure it did more than light the fire under the youngest’s desire to be around horses, though, so we may be trying to figure out if horse lessons are something we can work into our budget going forward. Eldest, who’s much quieter than his brother, was also raving about it on the way home. I always think of horse-made girls, but it appears I have two horse-mad little boys.
Winners this Week
If you’re a winner, you should have received an email from the author in charge of the giveaway. If not, please email us at: prizes at inspyromance dot com.
Valerie Comer’s winner is Bernice!
Autumn Macarthur’s winner is Esther Morehead!
Alexa Verde’s winner is Ellie!
Narelle Atkins’ winner is Jessica B!
Marion Ueckermann’s winners are Sherri G and Chanel Monroe! (Marion might be reaching out to you later this week, as your prize isn’t quite yet available.)
Me on Athena. She was a sweetie.
And now, what I know many of you are waiting for…Back-to-School Bash Winners!
To see a list of what’s in each of the prize packages, please visit the giveaway page. Thank you so much to all of you who commented during the giveaway — we hope that you’ll continue to spend a little time with us here at InspyRomance each day. Readers are who keep us writing!
Prize Package #1 – June Horne
Prize Package #2 – Natalya Lakhno
Prize Package #3 – Susanne
Prize Package #4 – Linda Orr
Prize Package #5 – Susan P
Prize Package #6 – Sabrina Templin
Prize Package #7 – Marcia
Prize Package #8 – Tina Wyatt
Prize Package #9 – MJSH
Prize Package #10 (International) – Irma J
Prize Package #11 (International) – Wemble
Grand Prize – Sarah Taylor
Don’t forget… every comment you make qualifies you to win one of the monthly Amazon card giveaways!
Specials this Week
Luna Rosa by Elizabeth Maddrey is on sale for 99 cents through 9/28.
Come to the Lake by Autumn Macarthur is on sale for 99 cents starting tomorrow through 9/30.
Reader Gathering
Did you know InspyRomance hosts a Christian Romance Reader Gathering group on Facebook? Join us… but don’t forget to answer the questions for admittance!
Last Week on Inspy Romance
On Monday, Jan Thompson took us through layers of paint.
On Tuesday, Narelle Atkins shared her recent writer’s retreat.
On Wednesday, Lee Tobin McClain polled us about free books and how we read them.
On Thursday, Elizabeth Maddrey talked about being one step closer to llamas.
On Friday, Liwen Ho gave us her Friday Five.
On Saturday, Jackie Castle took us beyond the covers of a book.
Next Week on Inspy Romance
Monday: Staci Stallings
Tuesday: Melanie Snitker
Wednesday: Marion Ueckermann
Thursday: Heather Gray
Friday: Cecelia Dowdy
Saturday: Janet Ferguson
September 2018
Place Called Home (The Potter’s House Books 11) by Brenda S. Anderson
Flavors of Forever (Urban Farm Fresh Romance 5) by Valerie Comer
Love’s Choice by Liwen Y. Ho (re-release)
Season’s End (Madison Creek Bed & Breakfast 4) by Jackie Castle
His Healing Touch (Sweetapple Falls 2) by Autumn Macarthur (re-release of Love’s Healing Touch)
October 2018
A Christmas to Remember box set by Kimberly Rose Johnson, Valerie Comer, Elizabeth Maddrey, Ginger Solomon, Lindi Peterson, Julie Arduini, Deb Kastner, and Janet W. Ferguson
Wilde About You (Weddings by Wilde 1) by Deb Kastner
A Reservation for Romance (Homegrown Love 3) (Arcadia Valley Romance 19) by Annalisa Daughety
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
Hi Elizabeth, horse riding sounds fun:) My oldest has decided he wants to learn how to fly a plane (after reading lots of stories about planes/pilots etc.) That is an expensive hobby, so not sure how we’ll go with that one!! A work colleague’s dad flies gliders and has offered to take both boys up- I have a feeling that will fuel the fire for lessons!!
Thank you, what a lovely surprise:)
Blessings:)
My younger two have wanted to ride for so long….one day I’ll get them there.
Congratulations on your win, Wemble. My oldest son, always had a fascination with flying. His best friend’s dad owns his own six seater plane and over the years has taken our son and his children flying. Now at 40 with the help of Mr. Tim, my son is now working on his pilot’s license. Best wishes.
Happy Fall and Happy Trials, Elizabeth! Fall has finally arrived in SW Michigan with a morning temperature of 48 degrees, last week we had a high temperature of 90. I have ridden horses on several occasion. Living in an agricultural state, I know many people, who have horses. My retired beautician owns and rides horses, so over the years I learned a lot about her their personalities. Our neighborhood pumpkin farmer is getting reading to harvest his field of pumpkins. He is setting up his Halloween display and I can’t wait to take the granddaughters for their yearly visit. Best wishes.
Congratulations to all the winners of the Back to School Bash! Happy Reading to All.
Happy fall and congratulations to all the winners!!!
The horse riding adventure looks wonderful, Liz, thanks for sharing!!
Oh gosh, that is pricey! I have a friend who did that (as a 40something) and it’s definitely steep. It’s also a ton of work–sometimes I’ll have my eldest look into what’s really involved and the interest will slowly fade. :)
Congratulations!
I’ll admit I was hoping our family excursion would bank the fire of excitement some. Doesn’t seem to have, but at least they got the riding in–buys mom a little time :)
Oh…that weather sounds perfect! I’m anxiously awaiting it here. We’ve got 60 and rain today and it makes my heart happy.
It was a lot of fun! :)
That lesson looks like great fun, Elizabeth! Hope there’s a way for more to come.
And congratulations to the winners of the giveaway prizes. :)
I hope so too! It might take some jiggling but we’re looking at how to make it work.
I took riding lessons for a number of years and really enjoyed it. In the summer we would sometimes go on trail rides and that was always fun. I’m glad all of you were able to enjoy your lesson yesterday.
Congrats to all of the winners!
I rode horses a few times as a child, and do go trail riding once as an adult, but it’s been many years.
Congratulations to all the winners! Elizabeth, my youngest can’t stand horses and would run away at the thought of going anywhere near a pony, lol. I’m not sure why? She even refuses to read books with horses on the cover!
Thank you Renate. I’m glad your son has realized his dream to fly-what a blessing for great friends :)
Congratulations to all the winners. I’ve only been on a horse a few times and didn’t really like it. I prefer petting them.
Oh neat! I don’t know anyone who has done horse lessons. :)
It’s not something that I think most of us think of doing.
Oh wow! Definitely not horse crazy there :)
Petting them is really nice – so soft
It looks like the horse-riding was fun. So glad you found a place to make your kiddos happy.
That sounds like a great family excursion. I’ve always wanted to learn to ride but never really got the opportunity. I rode a pony in the county fair when I was about 3 or so. My cousin led us around the ring. I was too young to remember it but I have pictures for proof. They tell me I fell off when we were practicing. Congratulations to all the winners. I’m looking forward to hearing from Marion!
Beautiful family! Congratulations to all winners! And huge thank you to the authors!!!
Thank you so much so excited I was the Grand Prize winner My grandchildren love horses!