Horses, horses, horses!

Today we visited Danada Equestrian Center in Naperville. We enjoyed seeing the kids in their junior high summer camp program, meeting several of their horses in the paddocks and barn (and a bonus - seeing a barn swallow pair feeding their chicks!), and watching two of their draft horses being groomed and harnessed up to pull the hayride wagon. We learned how to tell if a horse will welcome a person near them by observing their body language, and we learned about horse anatomy and breeds. We compared the kids' heights to the outlines of different breeds of horses - a fun math game! We even got to see the skeleton of Doc, one of their former draft horses, and learn about how bones are important. This outing is the concrete experience that will help them appreciate our visit to the Field Museum next week - the exhibit 'Horses' closes on the 13th and we don't want to miss it!