How I Feel About This Particular Monday...

I'm adopting the Pony Party line on this one...

Sometimes You Just Need to Hug Your Pony...



Sophie drew this at school today. 
Said she needed her pony with her.

 It's been one of those weeks, and I was talking myself into skipping the barn on this rainy, foggy Friday night in favor of my PJs, a glass of wine and a good movie. 

That changed the second I arrived at my daughter's school to pick her up.  She came running out of the classroom, hiccuping and in tears.  As my arms encircled her in a hug she wailed, "I...j-just...w-w-wanna...see my p-pooooooony!" Seems she'd been collateral damage in an altercation between two schoolmates, the poor kiddo.  Maybe a stronger individual would have been able to remain resolute and stay home in favor of wine and PJs, but I'm a marshmallow. So we mopped her up a bit and headed home to change
and go down to the barn.

She didn't want to talk on the way down, and as soon as we arrived she jumped out of the car and ran to her pony's stall.  Minutes later I found her, sitting on an overturned muck bucket and leaning against Cookie's shoulder.  Seeing her took me back about 30 years, when I'd get off the bus and run to the barn where I took lessons to cry out the day's woes to Lazy or Andrew, the two lesson horses I rode and adored.  Those good old souls shepherded me through many a childhood tragedy or triumph, and I was so glad to see that my daughter had the same kind of support system.  Sugar, who resides in the stall next to Cookie's, was clearly concerned as well.  She had her nose out the feed hole and was nickering anxiously, wondering what was amiss with her "foal."

Talking it all out...

We didn't ride.  We just groomed the girls, clipped them, massaged them and loved on them.  We also took them into the arena and played a bit with them. Sophie and Cookie spent a good portion of the time just walking around the arena together, and when the rain stopped I could hear Sophie speaking softly to the pony.

By the time we left Sophie seemed over the events of the day, and while she wasn't her normal high energy self, she seemed at peace.  She hugged Cookie and kissed her precious little nose, and thanked her.  When Sophie headed out to the car I stayed behind a minute to thank Cookie as well.  Because as much as parents try to be everything for their kids, we can't be. 

We're so lucky to have these wonderful creatures to help us raise our kids, because sometimes the only thing that will make a hurt better is the love of a pony.

First Sleep Away Show Ever: Final Day and Thanks, Peter Leone!

Wow, if you'd told me on Day One that I'd ever be ready to go home, I'd have laughed at you.  Be that as it may, Day Five of HITS-on-the-Hot-As-Hades-Hudson IV saw me ready to head south on I-87.  However, before I did there was that small matter of Short Stirrup Hunter classes we needed to attend to. 

Thankfully they Horse Show gods decided to move the classes up from early afternoon to just before 11.  In my naivete, I thought that meant I was gonna get out of Dodge early.  HAH!  Every pony east of the Mississippi was competing in that class and it lasted FOREVER.  The division pinned something like four hours after it started.  Really.  I've been known to exaggerate.  A LOT.  I'm not doing it now.

In any case, the hunter classes are not Cookie's strength, and since she is 15 now and coming back from a broken splint bone and time off, lead changes can be iffy at best.  She will, however, sometimes land on the right lead if her pilot gives the correct cue.  Sophie and her trainer had been working diligently for some time on cueing Cookie to land on the correct lead.  So, on the way to the show, I decided to share with the pony pilot some advice I'd first heard while auditing a Peter Leone clinic and then in his DVD Ride the Body.  It made sense to me, and seemed to work whenever I remembered to use it.

Peter advocates "blocking the shoulder," which I interpreted to mean keeping your inside leg up at the girth (in a sense by the shoulder) to suggest the inside bend, which seems (again, to me) to leave your outside leg back a tad  to cue for the correct lead.  So, in 9 and 1/2 year old language this translates into "make sure your inside leg is forward enough to tickle your pony's elbow and add that to what Annabel tells you about cueing her with your outside leg."

Things were working fairly well landing on the right lead, but the left hind is where the pony broke the splint bone, and landing left was still presenting a problem.  Just before Sophie's last trip I could see she and her trainer having an intense pow-wow, and sure enough, Soph trotted into the ring with her Ultra-Serious Game Face on.  She landed her right leads, and the moment of truth came as she headed across the diagonal towards a green vertical with yellow flowers. 

I could see Sophie set her pointy little jaw from my vantage point in the stands, and as Cookie left the ground it was clear that she'd just been given a very definite aid from her rider. That pony darn near leaped out of her skin going over that fence!  Yellow flower heads went flying, but danged if Cookie didn't land on her left lead.  Of course, she landed a bit peeved with her jockey, so the pair cruised down the last line with a bit more pace than was necessary, but so what?  Mission accomplished!

When Soph and I talked about it later she said Annabel had told her that they were going to get that lead no matter what, and she was to tell Cookie in no uncertain terms with her outside leg which lead to land on. She said to me, 'Mom, I did what Annabel told me and I added that shoulder tickle thing you told me about, and we did it so well we knocked all the flowers off!"

This is how she did:

Tiiiaaaaaarrrdd pony.  Those lead changes are HARD! Poor Cookie Monster.





Showing With the Kiddo...

The Kiddo and the Po-Po

There's something extra....um, searching for a word here....special about riding with one's child.  It's wonderful and insane and tragi-comic all rolled up into one.  It's even more special when you share the whole horse showing experience with them.

The other weekend my daughter and I had a horse show.   She's 9, and I'm trying to get her to take care of things on her own a bit more, so the night before the show I told her to get out her show bag and make sure she had all her stuff together and ready for the next morning.  I then gave her a check-list so she knew what "all her stuff" entailed.  When I checked on her a little while later she told me she'd gotten everything in order and had organized it on her bed.  A quick peek assured me that yup, looked like we were good to go.  Off  kiddo went to bed, dreaming of successful rounds and blue ribbons. 

Didja catch it?  Mistake number one?  In case you missed it, the mistake was the "quick peek" part.  You'll see why in a moment.

The crack of dawn came earlier than usual for Mom.  Not so for the child.  She was up earlier than the neighbor's chickens, banging around in her room as she dressed for the day.  The kid is incapable of silence in any form.  Silver lining here is that I did not need my alarm clock.  I was awake, and husband was not awakened and thus irritated by alarm clock going off at ungodly hour.  WINNING!!!

All seemed to be going according to plan.  Kid was busy shoveling in breakfast while I loaded truck and waited for the coffee machine to heat up.  Just as I was taking that first life affirming sip, she oh-so-casually informs me that I need to fix her jodphurs.  The black strap at the bottom had broken.  Apparently at the last show.  Which.was.weeks.ago.

HUH??  FYI -- I'm dumb as a box of rocks until the first jolt of caffeine hits me.  I think I just swiveled my head and looked at her, slack jawed, because she repeated herself.  Veeeeerrrrrry slowly.  By this time her words are sinking in.  This happened a month ago??  Why am I finding out now, when we need to leave in 5 minutes and the show is 45 minutes away??!!??  My pulse, like the pitch of my voice, was escalating.  Quickly I grabbed my sewing kit and triaged that puppy back together and off we went, only 10 minutes behind schedule.  Only poked myself with the needle once.  Only cussed the one time, too.

Done for the Day. Tired Po-Po.

The jodphur incident left me with no time to fix my second cup of coffee.  I blame my lack of patience with her newly stained jodphurs on the lack of caffeine.  She got them dirty within 5 seconds of arriving at the show grounds.  Seriously, how on earth could sitting on the muddy ground seem to be a good idea??  Even her 7 year old barn buddy knew that the rule is you have to stay clean until you show.  What would George Morris say?!?

The kid was unconcerned.  The stain was on her tush, and to her way of thinking no one would see it.  "Duh," says the7 year old sidekick, "What about when you two-point????"   Thankfully a towel and some water helped the situation somewhat, although I swear you can see the stain in some of the pictures. The footing was muddy, so I'm hoping  the judge thought it was just splash back.

Heading Off to the Ring....

The rest of the morning progressed without a hitch.  The kiddo rode well, got some nice ribbons, but more importantly, was gracious and good to her pony even when she did not place as high as she'd wanted to.  She rewarded herself with a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich (gotta love show food when you are young and have a nuclear metabolism) and hung out with her pal and her pony while I showed.  She says she meant to come and watch my classes, but was having so much fun that she knew I would not want her to stop what she was doing. 

Think she played me a bit on that one??  Heck yeah, she did.  I'm fine with it.  I missed a couple of distances and really don't need to hear about it from her!