Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bonding...

A Boy and His Mare
Confession: I am an only child.  Perhaps you've heard the rumors that sometimes only children have difficulty sharing?  We are capable of learning but, yes, sharing can be a challenge.  There's a famous story in my family about my grandparents, some M&Ms, and a childhood friend.  Goes like this: Nana and Pop Pop came to visit and as they always did, they brought a bag of M&Ms. 

I was playing with a girlfriend at the time, and after the hugs were over and the candy was in my sweaty little palms, I started stuffing my piehole with the M&Ms.  Needless to say, I was not sharing with my girlfriend, and my grandparents chastised me for this.  As the story goes, I turned to Vanna Kay, handed her ONE blue M&M, and announced, "I'm SHARING!"

Time, marriage and motherhood have improved my ability to share -- somewhat.  Case in point, I share my mare with my son.  And tonight I shared my "solo" barn time AND my mare with my son.  To explain, normally Tuesday nights are "my" night at the barn (aka Mom Therapy) and the Hub and the Boy take Sophie to soccer.  However, tonight the Boy wanted to come to the barn and ride.  So off we went.

We had a nice chat on the way down.  We practiced loon calls.  We discussed the migratory pattern of loons and music from the 1980s (not that one has anything to do with the other).  The chat continued while we groomed and fussed over Sugar.  Noah hopped on her first and warmed her up, and when they began to trot I found myself striding around the arena offering pointers and sharing some insights from from a video I'd just seen on EquestrianCoach.com. My ideas seemed to help, the boy felt improvement in his balance, and I felt good for being able to help.  Yay all around.

A Mare and Her Boy
After I rode her for a little bit we let her loose in the indoor to have a roll and play a bit.  Noah and I ran around trying to get her to play tag with us (only possible if we ran while crinkling peppermint wrappers) and after she rolled he groomed her and told her about his day while I cleaned tack.  We blanketed her, kissed her goodnight, made our rounds kissing everyone else goodnight, and headed home.

I started the evening looking forward to some alone time with my mare.  I spent the evening thoroughly enjoying time with my son and our horse.  I guess this sharing thing ain't all that bad.  Who knew?

Just in case you were wondering, I stiill don't share chocolate.  Ever.  Some things don't change.

5 comments:

  1. Your blog is Haynets Blog of the Day today - come and take a look: http://hay-net.co.uk/member/haynetadmin/blog/1718/blog-of-the-day---a-work-in-progress-one-middle-aged-broads-descent-back-into-horse-madness

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  2. I don't share chocolate either, well I do, but I grumble.
    Don't you think that being moms can really strip you of anything truly yours? Its share share share, and sometimes we just need a little "MINE!!!
    I do love sharing Pippi with Miranda, but her bring 20 now sometimes we disagree and it can get heated.
    Wish my son liked horses, but no such luck. We do spend a lot of time, just him and I, and it is fantastic.

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  3. Just wandered over from Haynet, great blog! Love the name, too! ;)

    I'm an only child, too, but I still haven't got the sharing thing down. I bought my kids their own pony so I wouldn't have to share my horse, but they still somehow end up hogging my horse instead!

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  4. @samihob- Thanks so much! What an honor -- I'm chuffed!

    @ Marissa - I know, right?

    @Emme -- Yeah, I may share occassionally, and yes, I grumble a lot, and pout, and sigh. Loudly. And yeah, any kind of relationship can strip you of what's yours - marriage, motherhood. I've got a good friend who's very good about saying nope, gotta do something for me, gotta take care of me, and I'm trying to learn that from her. As for sharing with Noah vs sharing w/ Miranda -- i'm gonna guess that it's easier for me. Miranda is an adult, Noah isn't. I have the riding experience and am clearly the boss in both respects. Am going to go out on a limb and venture to say if I was sharing a horse with Sophie when she was 20, well, that might get ugly. :) LOL

    @ Shannon -- Hiya! Thanks for wandering over, and thanks for the kind words. I wouldn't say I've got the sharing thing down yet, by any means. Financially, this is what we have to do. But you know, it is character building, this learning to share thing! Maybe by the time I'm 80 I'll have it down!

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