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which_chick) wrote2011-08-16 08:14 pm
which_chick) wrote2011-08-16 08:14 pm
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I need to make a curriculum on competitive trail riding for the child of thunderstorms.
One of La's 4-H kids, a first-year rider riding my old project horse Callie, wants to do competitive trail riding. La told the kid that this would involve A LOT of trotting, and faster trotting than the child was comfortable with and going up and down steep and scary hills and yadda yadda yadda. The kid still wanted to do this, after La's scary and informative talk about what would be required.
The thing is, La is not going to tell a 4-H kid that she can't come along and condition. She is not like that. She lets people aspire to their dreams, even if the dreams are beyond their immediate grasp and sort of unrealistic for this year. If a kid wants to condition, La is all for taking the kid out and conditioning ponies with it. The problem, here, is that La is commuting home from work while conditioning happens. I am in charge of the conditioning. (I'm tolerably good at it.) However, while I do not set out to kill children, I am not much on coddling them.
I got there with clouds gathering on Monday evening after work. The child was mostly ready, so I caught Whims (the project horse) and Trysta caught Whisper and Olivia was already on her horse so we got organized and we all headed out even though it looked like rain. We had not gotten half a mile and the heavens opened to pour rain upon us, mostly straight down but some sideways as well. Since we were already soaked to the bone a minute after the rain had started, we continued riding in the rain and rode until we were done with the planned ride, thunder notwithstanding. (The horses, mind, were just fine. They live outdoors and are used to weather of all sorts.)
The kid did a really good job, listened well and tried hard at new skills (English saddle, posting in rhythm, how to hold English reins) even though she got something of an info-dump introduction to English riding shouted at her in the middle of a thunderstorm. She looked good aboard the horse (mostly) and didn't even come close to falling off despite some accidental cantering. She did cry, but y'know. These things happen.
Apparently our hills are very steep and scary. Apparently I expected way too much trotting. Fast trotting. Fast, scary trotting. For long stretches -- ALL THE WAY around the buckwheat field, for example (about a quarter of a mile, according to google maps). Readers that have recently visited: The buckwheat field is where you ride across the hard road and down into the hollow and up out of the hollow into the open field. That field there is the buckwheat field. (Contains no actual buckwheat.) The very steep and scary hills are the ones on the way to the buckwheat field, not other, more terrifying hills that we cruelly kept hidden from you.
If the kid comes back (La says she will), I need an organized plan of things to teach her. See, this kid actually pays attention, tries hard and retains information. Therefore, information needs to be provided. It'd be neglectful and wrong to fail to provide information to a child when one is provided with a child that pays attention and learns things while mildy terrified, in tears and being thunderstormed upon. (I still miss you, Oxford comma!) She might not come back. I am not sure she is going to brave our steep hills, fast trotting and inclement weather another time, but if she does, I will have an outline of material to offer her.
One of La's 4-H kids, a first-year rider riding my old project horse Callie, wants to do competitive trail riding. La told the kid that this would involve A LOT of trotting, and faster trotting than the child was comfortable with and going up and down steep and scary hills and yadda yadda yadda. The kid still wanted to do this, after La's scary and informative talk about what would be required.
The thing is, La is not going to tell a 4-H kid that she can't come along and condition. She is not like that. She lets people aspire to their dreams, even if the dreams are beyond their immediate grasp and sort of unrealistic for this year. If a kid wants to condition, La is all for taking the kid out and conditioning ponies with it. The problem, here, is that La is commuting home from work while conditioning happens. I am in charge of the conditioning. (I'm tolerably good at it.) However, while I do not set out to kill children, I am not much on coddling them.
I got there with clouds gathering on Monday evening after work. The child was mostly ready, so I caught Whims (the project horse) and Trysta caught Whisper and Olivia was already on her horse so we got organized and we all headed out even though it looked like rain. We had not gotten half a mile and the heavens opened to pour rain upon us, mostly straight down but some sideways as well. Since we were already soaked to the bone a minute after the rain had started, we continued riding in the rain and rode until we were done with the planned ride, thunder notwithstanding. (The horses, mind, were just fine. They live outdoors and are used to weather of all sorts.)
The kid did a really good job, listened well and tried hard at new skills (English saddle, posting in rhythm, how to hold English reins) even though she got something of an info-dump introduction to English riding shouted at her in the middle of a thunderstorm. She looked good aboard the horse (mostly) and didn't even come close to falling off despite some accidental cantering. She did cry, but y'know. These things happen.
Apparently our hills are very steep and scary. Apparently I expected way too much trotting. Fast trotting. Fast, scary trotting. For long stretches -- ALL THE WAY around the buckwheat field, for example (about a quarter of a mile, according to google maps). Readers that have recently visited: The buckwheat field is where you ride across the hard road and down into the hollow and up out of the hollow into the open field. That field there is the buckwheat field. (Contains no actual buckwheat.) The very steep and scary hills are the ones on the way to the buckwheat field, not other, more terrifying hills that we cruelly kept hidden from you.
If the kid comes back (La says she will), I need an organized plan of things to teach her. See, this kid actually pays attention, tries hard and retains information. Therefore, information needs to be provided. It'd be neglectful and wrong to fail to provide information to a child when one is provided with a child that pays attention and learns things while mildy terrified, in tears and being thunderstormed upon. (I still miss you, Oxford comma!) She might not come back. I am not sure she is going to brave our steep hills, fast trotting and inclement weather another time, but if she does, I will have an outline of material to offer her.
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