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Mini Horses & Apple Picking
October 25, 2009 by Victoria Yesterday we had such a fun adventure. From the moment we moved to Santa Barbara, I have searched for a fun fruit picking place -- especially in the fall. There are so many lovely farms in the wine country, but Web searches had not provided good results on fruit picking. So I gave up. (Farms are not so Web savvy -- go figure!) Well, yesterday, through the recommendation of friends who have lived here a long time, we found the most awesome area -- and a little fruit picking was involved.Just up the road from the fruit farm is Quicksilver Ranch -- home to the most adorable miniature horses. And we all fell in love with these little guys. Quicksilver Ranch is the cleanest farm I have ever been to and it was a perfect spot for Gwendolyn. We meandered over to the different fields where the horses were grazing. One little guy trotted over and Gwendolyn's eyes lit up. Then we went in the stall area to read more about the ranch. We had so many questions -- What makes a horse miniature? How is a miniature horse different from a pony? How big do they get? Luckily for us we met the nicest woman, Maria, who not only answered all of our questions, but gave us (well Gwendolyn) an extra special treat -- to touch one! They don't normally allow petting, but she brought the sweetest Palomino named Herold out to meet us and Gwendolyn was in heaven. (Bill got a kick out of the min horse's name because his dad's name was HArold.) Gwendolyn kept moving her hand to pet his neck and Herald stood calmly the entire time. We could have stayed there all day! We knew we were hooked when Maria started talking about the possibility of getting these little guys certified as "Guide Horses". We wanted to sneak one of the little spotted ones into the G-van to come back home with us. 
We are definitely going back in the spring when the babies arrive!!!
Then off to apple picking we went. This was a bit on the bumpy side for Gwendolyn's stroller, but it was really fun searching for the best apples to add to our bag. Gwendolyn liked to inspect them as we went and held onto her favorite one the entire time.
A perfect Autumn afternoon!!! (even at 80 degrees!)Talk About It
