On Friday Mary-Kate started taking riding lessons from our neighbor Stephanie. This is a big event because a year ago on May 8 she had surgery to repair a fractured spine. When she consented to having the surgery one of her most important questions was "can I ride a horse afterward?" Her surgeon said yes if she followed all of his rules during the recovery process.

She has been very good about wearing her brace when she was healing and about doing the exercises after she was allowed out of the brace. Even now she still has to do exercises to strengthen the muscles that she lost during the time in her brace and to strenghten those that help keep her back safe.

We are very proud of how hard she worked and how she was so patient with her healing process. We are also very thankful to Stephanie for being willing to teach her to ride and for being so careful with our .