Hello friends!
Sorry it has been so long since my last post! Things have been pretty busy here at the ranch! School is out so we have more session kiddos, the ranch had its summer play day for the community, and lots more! I've had some really awesome sessions with some really awesome kiddos! In my blog today I want to tell you just a couple of stories from some pretty neat sessions I've had :)
Kid stories:
Mason is a little boy I had worked with several times. Every time I worked with him he would hardly speak, most of the time he would just nod or shake his head to reply to any questions I asked him. After a couple of sessions with him and still seeing no more expression from him than the first time I had worked him, you could say I was a little discouraged. His family came out again and I was paired with Mason. Our session started out like our others, with minimal acknowledgement, but as we got the arena with our horse I started to see a little crack in the wall. The last time we worked together we had trotted for the first time and he had enjoyed it, so when I asked, he excitedly nodded. We started trotting and I saw the biggest smile I had ever seen from him! As we continued trotting, he continued smiling. We didn't end up riding for too long because of the heat, but by the time we had finished I had seen Mason smile more than all of the other times I had seen him combined! We went to get our popsicles and sat down to enjoy them. As we ate I decided to see if he wanted to play a game, though I didn't know where it would lead. We ended up playing 20 questions and.... he talked! We played the game for a little until opened up and started telling me about all his pets at home! This may not seem like a big thing for most kids... but for Mason, it was huge! The little boy who barely spoke a word through all our previous sessions was chatting on and on about all of his critters! It was so encouraging! When he left that session I knew the Lord had let me see a little piece of Masons heart that had been held in before. Even when things seem tough, even when you can't seem to break through to someone, don't loose hope! The Lord is at work, and if you wait on Him, He will move!
This was Bree's first time coming to the ranch, and you could tell she was excited! We got together and did our chore, all the while she told me of her love of horses and what she knew about them. She told me about her favorite horse movies and her horse toys at home and everything she "knew" about horses. It was finally time to ride and Bree chose one of our sweet horses, Halo. Halo took such good care of Bree and Bree had a blast! During our conversation she brought up that her dad had passed away in a car accident a couple years before. My heart broke for her and I told her that I had lost a family member too, it was a different situation, but I told her that I know some of that sadness that she feels. I could tell that that meant something to her, that she knew I understood. For the rest of the session she was just able to be a little girl who loved horses.
I first met John shortly after coming to the ranch. I shadowed quite a few sessions with John, but he wasn't super thrilled about me joining him and his favorite mentor. He let me know that he did not enjoy girl mentors! It was John's day to come to the ranch and his usual mentor wasn't there that day, so I got to work with him. Going into the session I knew John wouldn't be super thrilled, and I was right, but as we got into the session and we had a water gun fight and worked in the work shop, he warmed up! At the end of our session he didn't even want to leave! I was so excited that he had enjoyed our session so much!
Fun with kiddos:
~You look like a cowboy.... or a cowgirl.
~Me: Do you know why I'm playing circling game?
Kid: to get the horse rounded?
~Kid looks at his finger, "am I bleeding?" licks finger, "oh, it's just chocolate sauce!"
This past week was some friends and I had the chance to go to Crater Lake and it was amazing!
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