The Road Home: Michael and Gumpa on the pony

Michael and Gumpa on the pony
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl.

The girls were very excited to see this photo online this morning!

"Michael is widing de horsie!" (Maddy)

Melissa says "Hi Michael - you look cool on the horse. I would like to go on a horse sometime"

Melissa however - HAS been on a horse at Maplewood farm a couple years back and ended up screaming to get off.

At some point in the first few days we were in Baguio, my dad mentioned to Michael that there was a place that we would be going to where one could ride a horse. What he meant, I found out later, was the riding ring in Wright Park, which is just down the hill a bit from Mines View Park. Well, from that point forward Michael's every waking thought revolved around being on a horse. Every five minutes he would ask, "When are we going to ride the horse?"

It wasn't until the middle of the week that we had a chance to go to Mines View Park to take in the view. This was my first chance to actually see parts of the city other than the downtown areas.

Thankfully we found a couple of "Photo Op" vendors near the look-out who had ponies available for Michael to sit on. At first Michael played shy, but he managed to get up some courage after my dad sat on the pony first. They were even nice enough to let my dad lead the pony around a small ring a few times - which was enough excitement for a 4 year-old boy that we didn't actually have to go down to Wright Park to see the real horses.