HeresHoping
Well-Known Member
Am not going to put this in Comp and Training - it's a little light-hearted entertainment.
Monday 8th August was Gymkhana day at the Aldbrough St John Feast. We looked at the programme and took the plunge and entered.
Teddy, my son, has been riding on and off for a couple of years, on a loaned, totally unsuitable for a novice, pony once a week. This year, I put him on my saint of a Connie and said we'd better do something about this. Teddy, being a bit of a perfectionist, then spent the next two months doing very little other than walk and halt and the odd bit of trot out on a hack. I finally convinced him to move up a gear by taking him out on the stubble, facing him up the hill and telling him to get to the top as fast as possible. I haven't had my pony back since, and he's even popping a few small jumps. However, he declined to do anything at the Gymkhana on grounds of 'looking stupid' which, to be fair, I understand. He's 12, his voice has broken and he's at least 5'8" and everyone else he knows who rides has been doing it for aeons.
Tabitha, my daughter, was given an opportunity to ride a Shetland called Kipper 4 months ago. Up to this point, Tabitha's riding was largely on pink fluffy unicorns. Kipper has been there, done it, worn the tee shirt, won the 90cm classes at local shows, had lami, nearly died, and is of the opinion that it's his way or the highway. After two months of weekend riding, Tabitha's enthusiasm for riding started to dwindle somewhat. This correlated with the amount of time she spent eating dirt as Kipper voiced his opinion on trotting around the school, cantering around the school, etc. She has never really been on the leading rein, Kipper spends his time biting his leader on the backside so it was just easier to tell her what to do. In an attempt to reinstate the enthusiasm I introduced a few Pony Club games. Kipper knows his stuff here - no need for steering in the bending, or brakes in the potato race, he has it licked. And the smile was put back on the daughter's face. Back to the event. Given that steering isn't quite there, yet, we decided to do the leading rein classes.
Thanks to a fat mother, Tabitha achieved a second in each heat in the games. We were also just out of the ribbons in the 40cm jumping but had a double clear. That Kipper knows his stuff:
BUT... we managed to persuade Teddy to give something a go. We cobbled together a costume, which cost us all of £7.50 in materials and went into the fancy dress 'On Safari' and came a fabulous 2nd out of the biggest fancy dress field I ever did see.
Proud, proud mummy. And you just have to love a Jams.
Monday 8th August was Gymkhana day at the Aldbrough St John Feast. We looked at the programme and took the plunge and entered.
Teddy, my son, has been riding on and off for a couple of years, on a loaned, totally unsuitable for a novice, pony once a week. This year, I put him on my saint of a Connie and said we'd better do something about this. Teddy, being a bit of a perfectionist, then spent the next two months doing very little other than walk and halt and the odd bit of trot out on a hack. I finally convinced him to move up a gear by taking him out on the stubble, facing him up the hill and telling him to get to the top as fast as possible. I haven't had my pony back since, and he's even popping a few small jumps. However, he declined to do anything at the Gymkhana on grounds of 'looking stupid' which, to be fair, I understand. He's 12, his voice has broken and he's at least 5'8" and everyone else he knows who rides has been doing it for aeons.
Tabitha, my daughter, was given an opportunity to ride a Shetland called Kipper 4 months ago. Up to this point, Tabitha's riding was largely on pink fluffy unicorns. Kipper has been there, done it, worn the tee shirt, won the 90cm classes at local shows, had lami, nearly died, and is of the opinion that it's his way or the highway. After two months of weekend riding, Tabitha's enthusiasm for riding started to dwindle somewhat. This correlated with the amount of time she spent eating dirt as Kipper voiced his opinion on trotting around the school, cantering around the school, etc. She has never really been on the leading rein, Kipper spends his time biting his leader on the backside so it was just easier to tell her what to do. In an attempt to reinstate the enthusiasm I introduced a few Pony Club games. Kipper knows his stuff here - no need for steering in the bending, or brakes in the potato race, he has it licked. And the smile was put back on the daughter's face. Back to the event. Given that steering isn't quite there, yet, we decided to do the leading rein classes.
Thanks to a fat mother, Tabitha achieved a second in each heat in the games. We were also just out of the ribbons in the 40cm jumping but had a double clear. That Kipper knows his stuff:
BUT... we managed to persuade Teddy to give something a go. We cobbled together a costume, which cost us all of £7.50 in materials and went into the fancy dress 'On Safari' and came a fabulous 2nd out of the biggest fancy dress field I ever did see.
Proud, proud mummy. And you just have to love a Jams.