Father-daughter bonding

Tom's turn to post something.

On Saturday, Emma and I went to the Minnesota Horse Expo at the state fairgrounds. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but put Emma and horses together, and you've got the ingredients for a happy 8 year old. We went in mid afternoon, and watched all different kinds of breeds being shown in the coliseum. Then we went to a different building where she got to ride a horse ("Glitter"). It was only about a two minute ride, but smile-inducing nonetheless. After walking around looking at horses, (and wandering past more vendor booths than there were horses), we had fair food for dinner. After standing in line for another horse ride (this time on "Foxy"), I needed somewhere to sit for a while. The only warm place with seats was at a seminar entitled "So you've bought a horse - now what?" Emma asked why we were there, and I made the mistake of saying something like, "Well, just in case we ever do get a horse, we need to know what to expect." Her eyes got wide, and she said, "What do you mean, 'Just in case'?" as if she was going to get a huge surprise on her upcoming birthday. Why couldn't I have just said, "I needed to sit down"?

There was a rodeo that night, and we decided to stay for it. She didn't care that we were in the cheapest seats two rows from the top - we were at a rodeo. The kind with bull-riding and everything! I had never been to one - I had only seen images on TV. There was a lot of waiting around between events, some pretty amazing confrontations between relatively small men and relatively large livestock, and a lot of guys who apparently have no regard for the integrity of their bones. One guy got knocked unconscious by a bull, and laid there motionless for several minutes. He was fine, fortunately.

Here are Emma and I at the rodeo. Melissa is a much better self-photographer.

We were there for about 7 hours. I was the one that saw the ad for the horse expo and suggested we go. I think Melissa was thinking that, if I saw how much goes into caring for horses, I'd think dogs were a piece of cake in comparison, and I'd cave on getting one. Not yet.