It's Been a Week Since Easter But I Still Need To Talk About It

It was a beautiful Easter weekend weather wise.  I did take Youngest horseback riding on Saturday.  In fact, it was his second visit that week to Dahlonega, about an hour at the most, north of Atlanta.  When our middle son was in 5th grade he had an excellent field trip to the town of Dahlonega in the Georgia mountains--it's where the first Gold Rush in the U.S. of magnitude took place beginning 1828.  In fact the gold found there was some of the purest in the world and although there was gold from Virginia to Alabama, a large stretch was in GA on Cherokee land.  Its gold leaf covers the Capital dome in downtown Atlanta.  It was a U.S. mint for a while.  And sadly it was where thousands of Cherokee people lived and were forced to leave via the Trail of Tears.  So Hubs had the week off and they went to a gold mine to learn the history (it was one of about 400 mines from back then) and they also hiked to some water falls nearby.

I had promised Youngest that we would go horseback riding and had been researching where we'd go.  There are several places I could have chosen that would be a 1.5 hour drive but I chose a place near Dahlonega, which takes about an hour.  First we went to the town square and visited the old courthouse and museum and then we drove to the horseback riding place for our 4:00 pm ride.


This was his third time riding, having gone with all five of us once for a camping/Father's Day/My birthday weekend camping trip when he was about 6 years old and also another time with just me and two of the boys in NC.  This turned out to be our least favorite ride.  The trail ride was made up of two workers, a mom with two young sons, a mom and dad with a boy and girl, a single couple in their 20's, and us.  They picked out a horse for each of us and one at a time we waited on our horse in a line until everyone was ready.


At the end of the line was a worker, then the single couple, then me, then my son, then the family of four was in front of us and so on.  Just as we were about to get started, there was an incident with the girl (about age 7) in the family of four in front of us.  I looked ahead and saw the girl on the ground, crying.  Youngest told me later he saw the whole thing.  Her horse was right up the butt of the next horse (we were not moving) and her horse didn't rear but raised its head up really high, moving left and right, and the girl slid off.  The two workers in the front and back got off their horses and came over and a third came over as well--I think were pretty surprised at this.  They apologized and most likely wanted the trail ride to resume.  I don't think the girl had her feet in the stirrups at the time.


She was fine but there was a lot of crying and then parenting discussions.  The mom suggested at first that she (Mom) and Daughter stay behind, and let Dad ans son continue.  The dad said nothing--I could tell he really wanted to ride.  Then Mom suggested that the girl ride Mom's horse and the mom would walk next to her.  So that is what happened.  So for our one hour ride, Youngest and I were on our horses walking BEHIND a walking woman and I must say it slowed everyone down.  And the whole time I saw that this girl didn't have her feet in the stirrups at all as they were at a length for the mom, whose horse it was, and no one had adjusted those stirrups.  The workers were none older than 19 years old.  As I am writing this I think they should have told her that no walkers are allowed.


I remembered that when Youngest first rode he was maybe 6 yrs old and I now realize how much better and organized that worker/stable was.  Their rule due to Youngest being young, was that his horse was tied next to the leader's horse.  We got to cross a creek and our horses drank and we had some elevation (beautiful scenery) and the horses were excited to get back to their corral that the end and they actually trotted and some cantered so that was fun (although Hubs complained about his anatomy and has never ridden again).  Eldest has not either because his horse kept trying to bite his own human ankle.  It was in TN just over the GA state line.


So back to the Georgia mountains horseback riding story....since we were going so slow I had plenty of time to gaze all around and often when I looked behind me, I saw the twenty-something female on her horse.  Texting.  Yes, this gal was reading and texting while on an hour-long horseback ride.


Now here I have only written about Saturday and really meant to write about Sunday.  I'll be back.