Our older girls, Riley (12) and Chloe (11), have recently started riding their horses ALOT! It’s something they both love and enjoy spending hours talking about, reading about, riding, bathing and brushing these gentle giants. Our youngest, Taylor (4), has felt a little left out as she’s not quite big enough to do what the “big girls” do. She didn’t let that stop her imagination! She quickly announced that the bicycle she got for Christmas was actually a horse named “Hickory”. Hickory is a mare and she loves to ride. Taylor started talking about taking Hickory on trail rides, needing Daddy to haul her in the cow trailer and I even caught her one day spraying Equine Fly Spray all over the bicycle… excuse me, Hickory. However, she is still a little shaky on Hickory and feels much more comfortable riding her tricycle. Therefore, her next announcement was that her tricycle is actually Hickory’s little brother named “Ham”. I honest to goodness could not make this stuff up! Well, Ham has since been a part of a few family outings. He has traveled to Wind Creek State Park, Emerald Coast RV Beach Resort and Blue Springs State Park. It is funny to me how we have all followed her lead in referring to this tricycle as “Ham”. Ham has enjoyed riding on the back of Daddy’s truck and even inside the camper as we’ve traveled. She makes sure he’s always fed, watered and parked in the shade.
As adults, we rarely explore the world of imagination but through our kids - our eyes are opened a little wider. We get to experience things with them that remind us of a simpler time… a time where your imagination could take you anywhere you wanted to go. This is such a fun age and a wonderful season to be silly, play with them and enjoy a little imagination.
