Quarter Horse

This week's lab was the horses.  They are such beautiful creatures.  I have never ridden one, but I have stuck my hand up their butts for class.  

I have this list of things to do before I die, and one of them is to ride a horse.  My wonderful husband has tried many a time to make it happen, but it never pulls through.  I think that fate doesn't want me to ride a horse.  When I was little I had the opportunity to ride some horses with a group of friends from church and my mom just plum forgot to take me.  When we realized that I had missed this (apparently once in a lifetime) opportunity, she felt so bad for me that she gave me a few quarters to ride the horse in front of a store we often went to.  She never let me or my brother ride it before so it should have been a great treat.  

source here

I was the saddest child riding a plastic horse.  But I guess I forgave her because the only reason that I know that story is because she told it to me when I was older... she still felt bad about it.  She may have set me up for a lifetime with an unfulfilled goal, but I think that I can surpass this great obstacle!  I'm in the College of Agriculture after all! 

So back to the lab.  Someone else got to do the teaching on this one (she's the expert) and I got to take attendance and show the students where the bathroom was.  The students learned about the different markings on a horse.  The white spot on this one is called a star.

And because the horses here are softies, everyone got to say hello. 

Then our horse expert showed the different gates (like the beats when their feat hit the ground as they walk or run).

 This horse has colorful wraps around his legs to help show the different gates as he circles our expert.

One day I am going to ride a horse.  Might be after I ride an elephant, camel and ostrich, but I will ride one someday (and not another plastic one).