On a pleasure ride this weekend, there was a 4-yo girl who rode the short loop (7 miles), steering by herself (well, her horse was probably just following her mom and mom’s friend on their horses, but she was holding the reins and wasn’t being ponied) on her “knew his job” horse. Really sweet, and the little girl was proud to be out with the grown ups. She was pretty much parked in the middle of a western-type saddle, which for her, on a horse-sized horse, was probably like sitting on the floor, in terms of how wide and flat it was for a 4-yo rider.
Just kind of a sweet thing. May the kid continue to love horses and always be able to comfortably have them in her life, and may we all take care of our babysitter horses, as they have taken care of us and ours.