"Mini school"

My daughter Elaina age 8. Horse toy in her lap horse book in her hand. Not an unusual sight around here. She bought this book, "Mini School" about training miniature horses. It explains training them on everything from piaffe to bowing. She has decided to start her training career early and trick train our minis. I am also encouraging her to start a blog about it.

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Pony Club and I should have married a preacher man!

We went to our first Pony Club meeting just to observe and to find and see the facility that we will be meeting. We meet about 30 minutes from where we live. Which isn't bad but fuel costs and driving there at least 2 x's a month it will start to add up quickly. I personally don't think it is that big of a deal to spend $100 in fuel a month for Pony Club but my husband is NOT happy about all of it. So it now appears that I will not be joining Horsemasters and instead will try and find a ridesharer to split the fuel costs with us. I know there is one girl that can't come to alot of meeting because she has no way of hauling her horse. So I will be getting in touch with her to see if she is up for me hauling her horse if she pays half the fuel expenses. Not a perfect situation but it works and I know down the road I will be able to join. But after getting to the facility I instantaneously started drooling and turning green. No I was not coming down with some terrible stomach virus no I just broke one of the 10 commandments; Do not covet. A little background this facility is a ministry. I have no idea what exactly that means but what I do know is that they offer classes each week for any child wanting to learn about nature, horses and they have a Equitherapy program. And get this on Sunday morning the arena is converted into a church! Crazy right? When you say ministry I immediately think a halfway decent barn with a small indoor arena barely scraping by. Ah HEM...that was NOT the case, they seem to do alright. Here is the website, they don't have photos of things like the knotty pine stalls, well actually the entire building is done in the knotty pine floor to ceiling. Even the bathrooms look like they belong in a Ritz hotel. They have a full size dressage arena, well just read about all it offers on the website. But the website does not tell you about $100,000 horses that are donated to them. He showed us a couple newly donated ones. First was a 18 HH 12 yr old Oldenburg that won world show jumping 4'6" division. And a 7 yr old Appaloosa(prettiest and sweetest app I ever saw) that just last year won World show jumping 4' division! I was just blown away. Outside of some of the racing facilities down in KY I have never seen a barn/church like this. Now I am dying to ride in that arena...boohoo I guess I just get to watch my daughter ride in it. But even still I am glad that she gets to have this experience. If you are a horse person and you don't go to church you just might be converted after stepping foot in this place...lol.

My daughters Pony Club debute will be a games clinic on Oct 22nd!  Can't wait!

Watch if you want to smile today.

This is pretty much an overload in pure adorableness.  I cannot explain the joy of sitting in my back yard and seeing and hearing these four have such fun.  If you don't smile watching this then you are just a big grump!

Kids and horses.

Kids and horses together are many many things.  They are cute.  They are brave.  They have bonds.  They teach life lessons.  They give responsibility.  All of those things are great reasons to have my kids grow up with horses.  But my mind often wanders far far into the future.  I think that just happens as a parent.  I don't plan to or want to push my children in any one direction in their interests and passions.  I try to keep an open mind and if at some point any of my children say they do not want to do the horse thing any more.  Though I will be saddened some for my loss of my riding buddies I will give them freedom to pursue their own interests.

Though young, my now 8 year old daughters life goal is to become a trainer.  Idealistically I love this for her but realisitcally I know how hard it is to make any money in the horse industry.  So I wonder about how will she afford to not only keep up with her passion but also make a living off of it.  I cannot help but think about how hard it is for me to make it work in my 30's and wonder how she will do it.  These are all things I cannot control.  I cannot make her future all sushine and roses.  But I do feel it is our responsibilty as her parents to spend these years preparing her the absolute best we can.  To make her future better.
My mind goes to college equestrian teams and barn managment courses and those things will hopefully come some day if that is what she chooses.  It also goes to The college prep invitaional horse show!   Oh would this be fun and exciting to do with my girls.  But today, right now what are the steps I need to take now to keep her on the right track of some day fullfilling her dreams and goals.  Day to day they seem like baby steps but in the big picture they are stepping stones to her next phase in life.  Up until now I have taught her all of her riding skills.  I am her instructor and at this point I am still confident I can continue to do so at the level she is at.  So I feel no tug to put her into private lessons.  She started riding at age 5 and for the first 3 years we have worked on mostly confidence, balanced seat, treatment of the horse, safety and all the basics in grooming, care and horsemanship.  And her foundation is incredibly strong.  She can tend to be on the shy side but if you give her a horse she comes flying out of her shell and is a safe, confident and independent horseman. We have been in 4-h for 3 years just to add a little expereince in 'show' type atmosphere.  But truely 4-h can only take you so far.  It is a great program but always stays at the very basic level of horse expereince.  I feel she has 'outgrown' it.  Not to mention there are MANY things that have gone on within our 4-h that I disagree with on so many levels. 

I feel now our next step would either be private lessons or pony club.  If I were rich I think I could go a little on the crazy Mom side and have her in with the best trainers on the best horses and pushing her as high and as far and as fast as she could.  But then I wake up and remember there must be a very good reason that I am not rich.  Sometimes I think about the fact that I want to encourage her but at the same time do not feel I should push her too much.  But then I see Eventing Nation posts like this.  About a 10 year old girl riding in her first AEC and I think "oh crap I am running out of time!"  But then I come back to my senses and remember it is about the baby steps and if some day that is where she gets then great but until then, chill out!

So the only obvious next step for her is pony club.  I have never heard a bad word uttered about pony club and it sounds like an amazingly educational program for the young equestrian.  It is very well rounded in teaching horse care, riding and even anatomy.  I want these things for my girls.  I want them to be as educated as they possibly can and this seems a fantastic way to do it.  So I am doing my research on the local clubs have even attended a meeting of one of them.  I ask any pony clubber I ever come in contact with what they think about pony club.  I have been holding off on actually joining for a while now because I wasn't sure it was the right time.  But now I am confident that this is the right time and I cannot help but be excited for her.  Well and the fact that I will also be joining horsemasters ;)

Free lunging!

At least I am training someone right!  I was impressed with my view from my kitchen window this morning.  Take a look what I saw.