Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Ranch is Open!

HIS Ranch has been open full-time for two weeks now! There are many new faces this year as well as some familiar faces from last summer. It is such a blessing to have the kids around! They are so willing to learn and so ready to offer their love whether it be a horse or human. These first couple of weeks have been quite busy even with all the rain that has come. In the past, we would just cancel lessons if the arena was too wet to ride in, but this summer we are trying something different. When we can't ride on those rainy days, our sessions will focus more on the grooming and getting to know the horse.

We had the YMCA group at HIS Ranch last Wednesday for the first time this summer. We did not get to ride but we did fill the time with fun alternative activities. The kids were split up into three groups and went around to three different stations. There was a grooming station, an informative station, and a coloring station. At the informative station, Alicia talked to the kids about taking care of horses such as feeding and handling. All of the kids got to color pictures of horses or draw something that was on the ranch for a contest. The best coloring picture and drawing will get a prize the next time the YMCA comes back to HIS Ranch. Also, the older kids got to finger paint on Louie and Cheyenne. Both the horses and the kids had a blast with the finger paint!

God has yet again provided HIS Ranch with volunteers for the summer. Carrie Blunier and Kyle Reinhard will be helping out at the ranch for the entire summer. Adriana Jones and Breana Wagenbach will be at HIS ranch for the month of June. We are so thankful for all these ranch-hands! God Bless!