The Scientist rode in the annual Horse Show at her riding school on Saturday. She participated in three events. The first was Showmanship. This involved judging the appearance of the horse and tack. The Scientist spent two hours the day before, preparing her horse and cleaning the tack. She also put in about forty-five minutes the morning of the show, doing a final grooming of her horse, or pony, actually, cleaning out its hooves and all kinds of fun stuff. She placed eighth out of thirteen, just well enough to garner a ribbon.
She also participated in two Cavaletti events. Cavaletti apparently refers to poles that the horse goes over. She rode Peter Pan the pony for these events. In the first event, she rode a set pattern which included going over poles on the ground. In the second, all the girls rode at once, changing from a walk to a sitting trot to a canter to a posting trot and so forth when instructed to do so. She placed fourth out of five in both Cavaletti events. She was disappointed in her results, but her family thinks she did well for her first horse show.
One girl fell off when her horse balked at a jump, and apparently Peter Pan went to his front knees while another girl was riding him, and the girl fell off. We missed this; it happened when Mr. BTEG, his sister and I were grabbing some lunch in a restaurant and enjoying some air conditioning. My sister-in-law, who is pregnant with her first child, was musing on how parents can bear to let their children take part in things that might be dangerous for them. What do you all think? For me, it's because riding horses, or dancing, seems to be part of who they are, or who they want to be. I can't deny them this chance to develop part of themselves. I do pray neither of them will ever be seriously injured in pursuit of their dreams.
The weather was hot and the sun rather bright, so that the Scientist's mother and aunt both felt the effects of the heat over the course of the day. However, we were all happy to be there watching the Scientist take important steps in her horsemanship.
3 comments:
It sounds like she is off to a good start!
Are there any horse barns around you where she can work and be around horses more?
That's kind of a tricky question. She has been trying to get into 4-H and the 4-H leader has a barn with miniature horses. However, the time they had for kids to come and help take care of the horses was incompatible with her schedule. She hasn't gotten on well with this 4-H group and may get into another one. But just after county fair is a bad time to get into 4-H.
She could also lease a horse at her current stable and ride every day or a few days a week. However it is of course extra money.
way to go family!!
love that day.
yeah, we have this thing called "OSH" (Occupational Health and Safety) here in NZ, they torment the workplace and the playgrounds with silly rules.
thus starts all the "back in MY day" convos... where we did all kinds of dangerous stuff without batting an eyelid.
which makes me believe in angels X
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