I absolutely LOVE days like today! While we’ve had extremely cold temperatures this week with lots of rain, today turned out to be a beautiful day! We intended on taking full advantage of it, too! However, the first order of business on today’s agenda was a women’s conference. I had the chance to attend with my very best friend in the whole world, my oldest daughter! We were hesitant initially about attending such a conference, but since it was International Women’s Day, we had to celebrate! What better way than to be united with 340 women under the same roof! Oh yes, you can imagine the lines for the bathrooms at this event!

My daughter and I had a great time bonding, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. There was praise and worship music to start us off, followed by one of my most favorite Christian Comedians, Ms. Anita Renfro. If you’ve never heard of her, please, look her up on Youtube. In her words, she takes your most favorite songs and ruins them with her version of them. They are too funny! We were laughing so hard. We really and truly had a great time bonding together today!

Ah, but it didn’t stop there!

After the conference, we met up with my husband and youngest daughter to go look at a horse. We’ve had the “horse fever” for quite some time now, and this weekend we set aside time to seriously look at horses of all kinds to narrow down what we are really interested in. We’ve looked at Paso Finos to Quarter Horses, Tennessee Walkers to Paints, and the list goes on and on.

We went out to this ranch today knowing that the horse was pretty from the pictures, but you just never really know what a horse is like until you lead it around and then hop in the saddle for a ride. We were in for a treat, that is for sure!

When we arrived and were still in our vehicle, we saw a young lady walking in the pasture with two horses following closely behind her. While all of the horses were pretty, we were hoping that the one following immediately behind her was NOT the horse we were there to see. While it was nice and everything, the second horse was just beautiful! Much to our surprise and delight, the young lady walked out of the gate and motioned for the second horse to come forward. Wow! This WAS the horse after all! Our whole vehicle erupted with, “Awww, look …” and “She’s so pretty …” and then there was, “I want her …” without even getting on her! I told my girls to settle themselves for a moment until we checked her out to see if she was going to be suitable for them. They have taken lessons since January, but they are still beginners.

We got out and looked the horse over. The young lady brushed and groomed the horse, then put the saddle on and jumped on. That impressed me right off that she would get on first. We have been warned by other “horse people” that when you go to look at a horse, you want to steer clear if the owner doesn’t get on the horse first to ride. Some times that can be a giveaway right there that they don’t trust the horse, and then you will know that the horse is not for you. Today, though, she did not hesitate, and we did not even have to ask her either. She rode the horse around for a bit, then brought the horse over for my youngest daughter to get on. My daughter was thrilled! She hopped in the saddle, and a wide smile formed on her face. She was in love, that is for sure!

The next one to ride was my oldest daughter. She looked good sitting up there in that saddle, and she really looked like she was not only having fun but knew exactly what to do. It wasn’t long before she, too, started to grin from ear to ear.

Next up, ole Mom! Yep, that’s right. I jumped in the saddle and away we went. Being new to this, I had no idea until recently that you could control the speed of the horse with the pressure you apply with your legs. My oldest daughter gave me the inside scoop last week, and I was itching to try it. And what do you know?! They will break into a trot and then canter if you continue to apply pressure with your legs. This ole gal had such a toothy grin on her face as she was trotting the horse. Now THAT was fun!

Finally, my husband took her for a spin. He wasn’t on her long, though, before my youngest daughter said it was her turn again! And good ole Dad gave up his place and allowed her to get back in the saddle again.

Our conversation turned more serious with the owner at that time. He and his family were extremely nice, and you could tell that they were good people. They are the kind that will be true to their word and stand behind the horse he sells.

He told me that there was a lady that called wanting to see the horse in the rain yesterday, but he told her he couldn’t show the horse to her because he had already scheduled for us to come out to look at the horse. He said he couldn’t, in good faith, do that to us. I told him how much I appreciated it, and then we talked more about the horse. Being extremely impressed with her and finding out that the only reason they were selling her was due to her not being fast enough for barrel racing, we knew this horse had to be the one for us! We were beginners, so we certainly didn’t need anything too fast. She was gentle with all of us, especially my youngest daughter. She let us hug on her, rub her all over, and kiss her. She let my daughters get so close to her and love on her. We knew she had to be ours, and so … we bought her right there on the spot. What’s funny about this story is that we purchased this horse without even having a place to put her. Yep, we sure did. Now, don’t worry, the horse is being kept for the next few weeks at their place until we can get our place “horse ready.” They did not have a problem at all with that and welcomed us to come back during the next few weeks to bond with the horse until we are ready to take her home. We have six acres, so we have plenty of room. We just need this time to make it horse ready!

These already incredibly nice people further impressed us by saying that when we were ready, they would deliver the horse free of charge. Then they went a step further and offered to let us just take their horse trailer to our house and then return it when we’re finished. Wow! How nice! They did not have to offer this at all, but this just speaks volumes of the kind of people that they are.

We loved on the horse for a little while longer, and then we paid for our newest member of our family and even got a deal on a saddle from this family as well. We got back in our vehicle to leave and glanced at the clock. We were there a total of three hours today! Wow! We had no idea because time truly does fly when you’re having fun.

With that said, I’d like you to meet our newest family member! She’s the color of a Little Debbie brownie, and they have affectionately named her “Little Debbie.” (We may change that at some point, but for now, it works!)

And now … here she is!