Our day started off with an adventure that was new to all of us. We drove a short distance from our campsite to Smoky Mountain Riding Stables in the Smoky Mountain National Park. This was one of the only horseback riding facilities we found along our cross country route that was guided through a trail and would allow children Lily's age. I wasn't sure what to expect, but was guessing we would be with other people. To my surprise, we had a guide just for our family.
Billy was the perfect guide for us. He was humorous and able to keep all of us feeling comfortable while still giving us the needed instructions to have a successful ride. Lily rode on Zack and Billy led her horse with a rope. Ella had Buddy (which I thought was funny because it reminded me of one of our favorite movies, Elf), Adam had Peanut and I got a beautiful brown and white horse named Baby (also kind of funny, because I would love to have another baby, so not quite right, but I'll take it). Baby was the tallest of all the horses. Getting up onto the horse was quite the interesting feat. I had to put my left foot into the stirrup, which I needed adjusted at first because I am vertically challenged and where it was would have required me to do a straight split into the air and still the stirrup would have been above the top of my foot. So Billy lowered it just a bit. Then with my hand on his shoulder, my leg in an upwards split and my foot landing in the stirrup I had to put my whole bottom into Billy's hands so he could hoist me over to sit in the horse's saddle. Billy kept telling me not to hit him and I didn't quite realize how up close and personal we were getting until it was done.
We went on a 45 minute ride that took us 3 miles on the Little Dudley Trail. They told us not to let our horses eat or drink. Poor Ella's horse kept wanting to graze on the natural salad bar (as Billy called it) and she had to pull so hard to get Buddy to stop. She was having trouble getting Buddy to stop each time but she did a good job doing what she was told and staying calm. Adam kept having to slow Peanut down, which he seemed to do with ease. At one point Baby started to take off faster than she was supposed to and was shaking her head from side to side (Billy said this was a sign she wanted to play). Luckily with Billy's commands to Baby and instructions to me she stopped without incident. It was so quick I didn't have time to be scared. The ride was absolutely gorgeous. We went up and down hills, through creeks, and past waterfalls. Some of the path was very narrow with steep drop offs. We saw a deer in the woods. Billy pointed out a wild turkey at one point but I was the only one of us who didn't see it. They all thought it was amazing. When we were all done Lily asked if we could come back again when she was 7 or 8 so she could ride on the horse by herself without the guide having the rope.
We'll post later about our afternoon adventures in the Smoky Mountains.
