My Name is McKenna!

    October is my second favorite month of the year (because anyone knows that the best month is always the month of your birthday) for its color, its weather, its spice-- it's just lovely. It's that first glimpse of summer reprieve, at least here in the south. It's the month where I step outside, take a deep breath, and enjoy a day for its perfection. On Saturday, I took the girls out for some fall fun out in the country. We went horseback riding, something I grew up with and is almost second nature for me, but something my children are not familiar with. They each had their own horse and could not wait to get started. It was a calm, walking ride through trees and fields, nothing strenuous or requiring too much thought as the horses followed each other with our guide up ahead at the front.
    Caelan lucked out form the beginning and her horse was lead by the guide. In hindsight, it should have been McKenna's horse, who was a couple horses back from the guide and directly in front of me. Evelynn rode along behind me and was overjoyed, as per her usual. McKenna was completely out of her element. I'm never quite sure how she will handle any given situation. Sometimes she approaches life with such ferocity and other times it's with shaking timidity.
    In the case of her relationship with this horse, it bordered on timidity. She had absolutely no idea what was necessary to sit atop a horse and make sure it moved. She held the reins far too slack and could not quite understand the terminology of "hold the reins closer to his neck" or "hold the reins tighter or his head will get away from you." The guide was absolutely no help. I helped as much as I could but the guide was quite displeased when I got out of line to show McKenna how to hold the reins. This guide lady had obviously had a long, trying day. She was vocal about how long she had been astride her horse and with only two breaks in six hours. Having a whole lineup of little girls on horses with little horse knowledge must have been her undoing.
     This ride lasted about twenty minutes and every few minutes, the guide lady would turn around and yell at McKenna "Hey, girl in the black shirt!!!" and then proceed to ineffectually criticize her handling of the horse. I'm not sure the guide new how to instruct a seven year old constructively on horsemanship other than to continually yell at the "girl in the black shirt." McKenna was never flustered much, but I was not impressed with constant yelling and the guide's tone of voice was creeping up to down right rude. The ride was lovely; the girls were elated, even McKenna despite the guide's less than pleasant communication.
    Near the end of the ride, Ms. Guide Lady had had enough. She stopped the horses and turned to repeat all criticisms of the last twenty minutes, beginning with "Hey, girl in the black shirt!!!" McKenna listened quietly and I helped her readjust the reins. Just as we were about to set off again, McKenna yells "HEY, LADY IN THE FRONT!! MY NAME IS MCKENNA!!!" The guide turned around and looked at McKenna, "I guess I've been very rude to you this whole time. I'm sorry. You'll get the hang of the reins someday. I was just worried the horse would get away from you. It's nice to meet you, McKenna." We finished the ride without any more yelling and McKenna hopped off her horse, delighted with the experience. So, for future reference, she may start out timid, but she won't put up with verbal abuse for too long. It was all so... McKenna.