Jessica's day at the stables

Jessica had never seen a real horse up close and it has been one of her dreams to do so. A good friend of ours, Susan, asked a friend of hers who owns some horses if we could bring Jess to see one of hers. Joyce, (Susan's friend) contacted the owners of the stables where she keeps her horses and they OK'ed the visit. So today was the big day! Miss Jess had so much fun!

Here is Joyce ("Juice") with her horse, Emkay Tucson




Juice took Tucson out to an arena so he could run for us.



Tucson is such a beautiful horse!



Jessica and Susan hanging out in the shade, watching Tucson run. I don't know the name of the horse in the background but we visited him a little later.



Jessica gives Tucson some grass to eat.



Jessica really enjoyed petting Tucson. He would turn to her every time she called his name.



Jessica got to feed a colt that lives on the property.



The other horse seems jealous over the attention that Jess is giving the colt.



Good thing that Jessica's wheelchair wheels have traction!



Juice is teaching Jessica how to feed a carrot to a horse without getting her fingers bit off.



Jess isn't even afraid and does it all by herself. (although her thumb is sticking up and it's not supposed to be, but at least no fingers are missing!)



Karl and I get to have a picture taken with Miss Jess and the horse. The "hat" over his head is to keep out the flies. The horse can see through it just fine.



Here is a trainer. She was able to get this show horse to side step. It was quite amazing!



This young lady is Alex and she helps around the stables. She was grooming this horse.



Alex getting her all saddled up.



This guy is a stallion. He was showing his teeth and sticking his tongue out at us. Of course he quit doing it once I got the camera turned on! He was quite funny.



I've got my eye on you.



This man is a professional shoer. The horse he is working on, Domino, is 33 years old! He was very nice and it was very interesting for Jess and I to watch him trim the horse's hooves.



Here he is again, working on the horse's hooves. The owner of the horse is a sweet older lady.



The lady had a dog who's name is Dutchess. Dutchess has diabetes and is blind. Jessica told the lady that she was blind when she was 3 yrs old. I explained about her strokes and heart surgeries. They were amazed.



Here is the last horse that we saw today. Her name is Sunshine but they let Jessica nickname her Lightening. It's been Jessica's dream to have a brown horse with a white stripe down her nose and to name her lightening. Jessica was so happy that they are going to let her nickname the horse. They told us that they are even going to make a sign so that when Jessica comes back to visit, this horse's name will be Lightening on her stall door.



Jessica keeps thanking Karl and I for taking her to see the horses. She has talked about nothing else all day and keeps saying that this was the best day of her life! She didn't want to leave... she LOVES it at the stables and loves the horses. The stable owners and Juice said that she could come back many times. She is soooooooo happy.