Crazy Eyes

Visions of the Land of Little Horses

Almost four years ago C43 and I took the girls to The Land of Little Horses, in Gettysburg, PA. Since Q6 has been horse crazy I suggested she take a friend there as a birthday celebration. Yes, a birthday celebration. Since it didn't open until June, this was the first available weekend day that we could do it.

Q6 decided to invite H6, which we duly did. Then Saturday afternoon C7 said she didn't want to go. I called her bluff and told Q6 she could invite another friend and C7 could do the grocery shopping with C43.  So Q6 invited P6 and she also accepted. Sunday morning the girls were itching to go and off we went.

Here is the view from the front seat:

One hour and 38 minutes we arrived, and had our picnic, which involved pasta, watermelon, applesauce, and cupcakes.

Behind that watermelon smile is a Q6 who was feeling the effects of a triumvirate of girls. Big mistake on my part, because the other two girls were feeling especially close to each other, and while they didn't explicitly leave Q6 out of anything, I could see that they were not including her, and I was hoping she didn't notice.

But after lunch we went in, bought our horse food, and hit the horses. Of course, the first creature we saw was a donkey. But then we saw the horses!

We went around and fed all the horses, although the girls were a little nervous because the signs all said to be cautious about nipping stallions.

This horse, however, was just wandering around. The girls loved it.

And there was one full-sized horse. She and her colt were in the stall and LOVED the horse food.

We decided to hit the 1:00 show, which the girls all loved. So much so that we also went to the 4:00 show. I liked it as much as I did last time. Amazingly, it was just as much talking as it was 4 years ago. The theme this year was "superheros" and all the animals had alteregos like superman, the teenaged mutant turtles, spiderman, and the power rangers. Even the llama and the counting horse.

The horse did MUCH better at his math problems this time! He got them all right. Or just about.

We headed down to the "valley" to take a wagon ride.  The wagon ride was hot and calming (read: dull) ...

... and after the ride we played there for a bit, until P6 fell and skinned both knees, but 2 band-aids made all better.  We then played and then we found the following, and took pictures in every one we subsequently came upon until my batteries pooped out.

 

  

A little random silly and serious:

 

And is this the same guy from our first visit?

(Q6 just now looked at the pictures over my shoulder and commented on how happy P & H are, and how her own smile was forced.)

When we arrived home I dropped H off, then I dropped Q off, then I dropped P off at the pool. When I got back home Q jumped in my lap and started crying and told me how unhappy she'd been the whole day because P6 and H6 hadn't played with her. While that isn't strictly true, she was the odd man out, and I know the day didn't go as she had imagined in her mind.  When you look at the photos you can see there isn't that pure joy that you want to see. But I hope the memories will gel as positive, even if she does have somewhat negative feelings about the whole day.

Oh, and C7? She said she regretted not going. 

I received a lot of wonderful things on my birthday, but the most visually stunning was these:

And delicious!!

And finally ...

Q7 with her horse. Since I didn't get good action shots of her ...

On a cool-down walk:

Putting Lightning in his field for the last time:

Neither girl had any fear of the horses. It helped that the horses were Arabian and a reasonable size, I think. Although still giant compared to kids. Hugging the horse:

Brushing the horse:

C7 with N:

And the girls in their bathing suits (this is what the room looked like):

Square dancing!

Square dancing was a hoot! Thank you, Mrs. D., who led 4 sessions of square dancing every December in PE class!!   This was much more fun, though, because I was happy to make a fool of myself!

Before the square dancing began C7 took our photo:

Then we let Anna take the camera (C7 was hiding upstairs ... first reading/watching from the balcony, but then in bed. I think she needed some alone time).

I think these got cut off in Flickr, but still fun. Watch for Q6 and her very TALL partner!

Horse painting

I think the title says it all ...

It really was a very patient horse. The paint was cut with some shampoo and away they went, painting the horse.

Up close of a tree C7 painted

Here is the end result!

Moving the cows

The ranch keeps cows to move them. Actually, so the guests can move them. Twice a week the cows get moved from the pasture to the corral, they gets penned at night, then moved back to the pasture the next morning. They know the routine, even if they don't really want to participate in the penning.

So our second full day we brought the cattle back to their pasture. Even the girls got to go, although each of them had a wrangler to help move their horses along.

I had a hard time taking photos on the cattle drive. I got some fuzzy bouncy ones. But it was fun. The cows knew exactly what to do, and did it. We just had to moooo-ve along with the cows and occasionally come up behind them to prod them on.

Papa on the cattle drive:

Q6 on the cattle drive:

And here is a teeny tiny bit of a video of the girls on horses: