My Cowboy

On Sunday Jake was feeling quite confident after riding Hyrum, my dad's small buckskin pony, around the small corral. He traded his saddle to a full size horse. He climbed up on Old Man and said "Wow, I can see forever up here. I can see all the way to my house!" My dad saddled a horse for me and around the pasture the 2 of us went. It was very pleasant riding around with him. He asked me to tell him some stories about when I was little and used to ride horses. We made it around a full 3 times and the two horses got a little irritated with each other. I was trying to slow my ride down when Jake's horse took off the other direction. Jake made a terrible screech and I think it gave the horse a start. He jumped a little & turned to the right. Jake handled it so well. He jumped of to the left hit the ground and rolled a couple of times. I was pleased that he had jumped out of the way. When we got everything back under control I told him how proud I was and that he handled it just like a real cowboy. He didn't w ant to, but I put him back on the horse & lead him around one more time. He assured me that he still wanted to ride in the rodeo when he was bigger. Mike jumped on a horse and came riding out to us. Jake asked him if he wanted to change his job and ride in the rodeo too!
After the ride Jake went to sit down by everyone and grandpa Bruce told him to get out there and put his horse away. He looked at my dad, held his hand up and asked, "With this hand? It is broke right in half." I can't believe how lucky he has been. He had a few scrapes & I am sure he was a little stiff, but he never did complain again. He did ask for a cold pack at bed time, so we wrapped it up in his cowboy blanket & took this picture.