The horse is Jax's current favorite animal. It used to be the dog, which he still enjoys. We say hello to the neighbor dogs almost every day, going over to the fence and letting them sniff and lick our hands. But the horse.
We're lucky enough that a couple different homes on our street have horses. One is a gorgeous female who is one quarter Tennessee Walker and three quarters Arabian. She is a rich reddish brown with a white star on her forehead, and her name is Prissy. We actually got to take some photos with her recently (for my nephew's birthday portraits). My sister Esther wore Jax in the baby carrier so I could take photos of her two kids with the horse (post of those images to come).
The other family owns an Appaloosa stallion who is big and tall. We learned from Prissy's owner, that the Appaloosa stallion is regularly used for breeding. I was trying to explain this to the kids, and words kept failing me for how to appropriately but honestly describe the concept of animal "breeding" to a seven and five year old.
The Appaloosa is kept in an open field along the street, and we've been feeding him grass once or twice a week for a couple years now. My mom started by taking my niece and nephew on walks, and stopping by the horse at the end of the street to feed him. Now, when he sees us coming, he will whinny loudly, and gallop to the gate in the fence where we can get close enough to feed him.
Jax has a couple board books with animals in them, and as most parents do, we make the animal sounds to identify each animal. He will now flip through the pages as quickly as possible, to get to the page with the horse. We tell him, "Horse!" and he giggles. Then we make a whinny sound, and he mimics. If you say, "Horse" he will whinny. When we put him in the stroller to take a walk down the street (which is when we usually see the horse), he will whinny.
It's definitely the cutest thing since whatever the last cutest thing was. Oh my heart. I had no idea it would be this much fun.
