I FORCED my kids to go horseback riding!

Yes you read that correctly!! 

With one of his feet in the stirrup, I lifted my youngest son’s butt up, so he could sit on the seat of the saddle!

Ok let me give you a little context before you call children’s services. 

Maybe you don’t know, but I have 2 amazing step sons (9 &12) that live with my husband and I. They go to their mom’s house most weekends and we split holidays. 

This year we had them for Halloween and I wanted to do something FUN! I wasn’t in the mood for dressing up (last year I scared the kids by dressing up as a killer clown and crawled into their room at night! They were terrified but loved it! ). 

So this year I was super excited when my sister told me about a fun Pumpkin Patch she went to with her kids. The Pumpkin Patch had a corn maze, little haunted house and animals including goats!! So I was definitely in! (small side note: I absolutely love animals! I have 2 dogs Roxy and Lex that I love to pieces!! And over the past 3 years or so, I found my new fascination with goats. You may have seen my FB/IG stories and posts with goats in them! They are soo darn cute!!).

The day before Halloween, I went out to the Pumpkin Patch with the boys. We had a blast with our first activity, which was a corn maze. We got a little lost but we found our way out. We were looking for the next fun activity when we saw 2 beautiful horses and 2 ponies.

The boys have never ridden a horse before and they ask if they could. I said yes and we headed over to pay. 

They were beaming with excitement and when we got to where they needed to saddle up. Malcolm, my youngest, yelled “he’s going first” and went to the front of the line. 

His excitement immediately turned into fear when the instructor brought over one of the big horses. He thought he was going to ride one of the ponies. I’m not sure where he got that idea from because he would crush the poor pony’s back. 

The instructor explained that he’s too big for the ponies. After he complained for another minute or two, he finally gave in and headed over confidently to the steps to mount the horse.

He climbed the first ...and second step…

Then quickly climbed down saying he couldn’t do this! He didn’t want to! And begged to just leave.

Then Jr started saying he didn’t want to do it either. 

I knew that they wanted to but they were just too afraid.

To show them it wasn’t a big deal, I got on the horse. When they saw me on the horse, their eyes widened with excitement. 

The instructor took me around the path and as I headed back, I saw Jr trying to mount the horse. 

He had one foot in the stirrup but was struggling to shift his body weight on that foot so he could swing his other leg over the horse and sit in the saddle. 

“It’s hard! I can’t do it!” He cried.

But I encouraged him to keep trying. I was still on my horse so I couldn't help so I just kept encouraging him. “Don’t give up!” It took him about 5 mins but he was finally able to get into the saddle. 

The horse started to walk and he was beaming! Yelling “This is soo cool!!”

I got off my horse and told Malcolm it was his turn. He was scared but he climbed the steps getting ready to mount the horse. He had one foot in the saddle but struggled to shift his weight like Jr. 

“I don’t want to do this!” He exclaimed but I knew he did. He was just afraid.

I encouraged him that he would be fine and I pushed his little butt up into the saddle. He got into the seat of the saddle and the horse started to walk. I could tell he was afraid but less than a minute into the ride he was loving it! Yelling “This is soo fun”!

After their ride, they continued to tell me how amazing it was and thanked me for encouraging them to do it! I told them it’s good to try new things and to get out of their comfort zone.

We talked around and saw all the animals! I even found a baby goat that was following me around. I was super tempted to take him home! 

And when we ended up back at the entrance getting ready to leave, they asked if they could ride the horses again. And of course I couldn’t say no. 

And this time, there was NO FEAR. They got up into the saddle with ease and rode the horse with pure joy in their eyes.

I share this story with you because I think of the many times when we were very afraid of getting out of our comfort zone. 

We are…

Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of failure. Afraid of looking silly. Afraid of falling. Afraid of being alone. Afraid of not being loved.

I personally can think of many times. 

For example, staying in an unhealthy relationship past it’s expiration date. I knew I wanted to end things for a while, but was too afraid of being alone and nobody else wanting me.

Or staying in a toxic work environment for too long. Knowing that I didn’t like the environment or the work I was doing, but I was too afraid to quit and start all over. And I was afraid of losing the flexibility I had.

Do you have any examples? Times where you stayed in your comfort zone too long? Too afraid to take the jump to the other side?

And sometimes God and the Universe gives us a little “push on our butts” forcing us to take the jump… and we ended up being ok. Actually most times better than ok. Great! 

For me I ended up leaving that unhealthy relationship and shortly after meeting the love of my life.

And when I left that toxic work environment, I ended up in an equally toxic environment but that actually was a good thing (I didn’t see it at the time). Because I learned some skills I needed that ultimately helped me land a better position 9 months later. While learning to speak up for myself. And I still had the flexibility I was afraid to lose at both jobs.

So these little pushes from God and the Universe were a good thing and I ended up in a better place. We may not see it as good at the time but there was a lesson we needed to learn.

If you get one thing from this story, it is to get out of your comfort zone. 

Try something new! Take the leap, take the risk and just jump. 

You might end up loving it and going back for a second ride!

Sending you lots of love!