Conquering Fears

Both girls have always been fascinated by animals-- as long as they keep their distance. The idea of seeing a horse, cow, dog, cat, etc. up close sounds great until, well, you know, they're UP CLOSE. So when one of our friends offered to let the girls come see some horses, we decided to conquer some fears. (isn't it always easier to decide to conquer someone else's fears for them?)

Taking advantage of Brooklyn's recent infatuation with the movie Tangled, we assured her that the white horse was just like Maximus, and she even changed his name to such.

So we went from Brooklyn refusing to even look at Maximus, to petting his mane, to her sitting on him bareback and riding him around the corral. The crucial bridge was when Tim's arms "got too tired to hold Brooklyn" so he "had to rest his arms (holding her) on the back of the horse." From there it was a piece of cake.

Lydia, on the other hand, did not even want to look at the horses. In hindsight, it was probably at this point that she perfected her high-pitched scream. But we snuck her onto one of the horses for a picture.

And finally, the family shot. I'm pretty sure the horse is about to keel over with the weight of our whole family on him, but he surprised us and held up well.

So here's to conquering fears! ...at least until the next time we try to get too close to a horse.