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Giddy up, girl! By Suzanne BroughtonPublished: May, 2010

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Sometimes, as a parent, you can prepare for those big moments in a kid’s life. You see them coming like a herd of angry, stampeding elephants. You can practice your speech. You can make sure you have your running shoes on. But the hard part of parenting comes when those moments quietly sneak up on you.      This kind of moment happened to us last year on our trip to Kay El Bar, a dude ranch in Arizona. My daughter, Emily, had an experience she’ll likely remember her whole life.        She’d never been out on an open trail on a horse, and after a short skill test from our wrangler, she got the nod and was able to go with us. Then the young wrangler turned to us and said, “I’m going to take you on my favorite trail.”      “Yee haw!” we all said, and Emily laughed, patted her horse’s neck and pointed out the butterflies as we slowly walked our horses toward the mountains. As we moseyed up a mountain peppered with cactus and wildflowers, it started to occur to me that we were going up pretty high.      Once we reached the top, we took in the spectacular view then started our descent. The only path was rocky and steep. After her horse stumbled slightly, she gave out a shriek of fear and hunched down in her saddle, clinging to its horn.      “You’re okay, doll,” I assured her. “Poquito has walked this trail a million times.”      My husband, Larry, and the wrangler were pretty far ahead of us at this stage and didn’t notice that Emily’s little world had gone from “Little House on the Prairie” to “Friday the 13th” in a very short time.      “I want to get off!” she howled and flipped her heels out of her stirrups. Her face was red and wet with tears, and her hands were white from holding on to the saddle so tightly.      Now, I knew she was fine. Larry and the wrangler, after talking to her on the trail, knew she was fine. Even Poquito, her horse, seemed more interested in grabbing a quick snack off the trees than in the shaky path in front of him. But Emily didn’t know this.      She was going to love being a cowgirl and soon reach full-blown, horse-crazy status – but only if she remained where she was!      So I was Ice Queen Mom: “Stay on your horse and ride it down; everything is fine.” But I doubted myself a little – what if this backfires? I felt sure in my heart that I was right. But, what if ...      Now, one year later, I followed behind Emily and Poquito on another beautiful rocky trail. She sat up straight in her saddle and looked confident and peaceful – way beyond her 8 years. I felt confident, too, happy that my instincts were right on this one.      Then later that day, we were walking the ranch and saw two horses getting amorous with each other. She stared for a long time then said, “Oh, that can’t be good. Are they okay?”         And there it was, another huge parenting moment falling right out of the Arizona sky. Suzanne Broughton is OC Family’s lead mom blogger. Read her blog HERE. Click HERE for a virtual visit to the popular Travel Hunewell Guest Ranch, located in the Sierra Nevadas.

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