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Aug. 26th, 2012 03:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickLast week I had a discussion with Olivia (one of the 4-H kiddies) about privilege. She was deep in the throes of "My horse is awesome and I am awesome and both of us are all that". There is a limit to how much of that I'm going to listen to, particularly when it is causing the other 4-H kiddies in the group to has a sad as the young people say these days.
The roundup show had gone well and the child was like "Awesome, I AM SO AWESOME and my HORSE is awesome and we are SO AWESOME." This went on quite a bit and I just got done all of a sudden. "Hey, Olivia!", says I, "When did you start riding horses?"
"I don't remember. I was really little. Maybe two?"
"That sounds about right. So then you've been riding for nine years. That's a long time. When you started riding, who did you ride with?"
"Mom-mom (her grandma) and Laurie and Trysta"
"So you had family that was personally interested in teaching you to ride and spent time with you while you were learning, so that you had a safe environment with expert advice while you were learning. And what kind of ponies did you ride when you were little?"
"I rode Eikon a lot. And Casper."
"Were you ever afraid or nervous on them, or were they good?"
"I wasn't scared -- they were good horses." (I also got the "Really?" look. These were softball questions, and she was kind of wondering why I was asking stuff that I already knew the answer to. I was laying groundwork. She does not yet know enough to be scared of me when I start that crap.)
"So... good, safe horses for you to learn on. When you got bigger and ready for a show pony of your own, where did you get her from?"
"Laurie picked her out of the field and broke her for me."
"Mmm-hmm. So from a field of probably twenty relatively-good suitable ponies, your adult relative horse expert selected the best choice for your use and then purposefully broke that pony to be your specific 4-H pony, right?"
"Right."
"Just to summarize. You've been riding for nine years under the supervision of relatives who are lifelong horsepeople. You had a safe and confidence-building exposure to horses when you were very young and your current 4-H mount was specially selected and trained to BE your current 4-H mount as the best of the lot from a field of roughly twenty acceptable horses."
"I guess so."
"I want you to imagine for me a fifty yard dash race, like in gym class. Everybody lines up at the starting line. And then, before anyone starts running, some of the kids get a head start. Most of the head starts are only a couple of steps, but one or two of the kids get a really big head start, like halfway to the finish line. THEN the starter whistle goes off and everybody starts running. Who's likely to win the race?"
"The kids with the head start. The bigger the head start, the more likely that they will win." (Another "D'oh" look, too.)
"Could one of the other kids win? Like, if they tried really hard and ran really fast?"
"Maybe. But they'd have to work, like, twice as hard as the kids with the head start."
"Yep. And how big is your head start in horses, compared to regular kids who don't start riding until they're eight or nine, who don't have their very own pony but have to borrow one, whose families don't know anything about horses?"
"I hate you."
*sigh* It was not one of our more productive conversations, I'm afraid. It's OK for her to be happy and proud of her achievements, but she needs to realize that ponies are an area where she's got a hell of a head start as compared to the average 4-H kiddie.
The roundup show had gone well and the child was like "Awesome, I AM SO AWESOME and my HORSE is awesome and we are SO AWESOME." This went on quite a bit and I just got done all of a sudden. "Hey, Olivia!", says I, "When did you start riding horses?"
"I don't remember. I was really little. Maybe two?"
"That sounds about right. So then you've been riding for nine years. That's a long time. When you started riding, who did you ride with?"
"Mom-mom (her grandma) and Laurie and Trysta"
"So you had family that was personally interested in teaching you to ride and spent time with you while you were learning, so that you had a safe environment with expert advice while you were learning. And what kind of ponies did you ride when you were little?"
"I rode Eikon a lot. And Casper."
"Were you ever afraid or nervous on them, or were they good?"
"I wasn't scared -- they were good horses." (I also got the "Really?" look. These were softball questions, and she was kind of wondering why I was asking stuff that I already knew the answer to. I was laying groundwork. She does not yet know enough to be scared of me when I start that crap.)
"So... good, safe horses for you to learn on. When you got bigger and ready for a show pony of your own, where did you get her from?"
"Laurie picked her out of the field and broke her for me."
"Mmm-hmm. So from a field of probably twenty relatively-good suitable ponies, your adult relative horse expert selected the best choice for your use and then purposefully broke that pony to be your specific 4-H pony, right?"
"Right."
"Just to summarize. You've been riding for nine years under the supervision of relatives who are lifelong horsepeople. You had a safe and confidence-building exposure to horses when you were very young and your current 4-H mount was specially selected and trained to BE your current 4-H mount as the best of the lot from a field of roughly twenty acceptable horses."
"I guess so."
"I want you to imagine for me a fifty yard dash race, like in gym class. Everybody lines up at the starting line. And then, before anyone starts running, some of the kids get a head start. Most of the head starts are only a couple of steps, but one or two of the kids get a really big head start, like halfway to the finish line. THEN the starter whistle goes off and everybody starts running. Who's likely to win the race?"
"The kids with the head start. The bigger the head start, the more likely that they will win." (Another "D'oh" look, too.)
"Could one of the other kids win? Like, if they tried really hard and ran really fast?"
"Maybe. But they'd have to work, like, twice as hard as the kids with the head start."
"Yep. And how big is your head start in horses, compared to regular kids who don't start riding until they're eight or nine, who don't have their very own pony but have to borrow one, whose families don't know anything about horses?"
"I hate you."
*sigh* It was not one of our more productive conversations, I'm afraid. It's OK for her to be happy and proud of her achievements, but she needs to realize that ponies are an area where she's got a hell of a head start as compared to the average 4-H kiddie.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-27 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-27 10:33 pm (UTC)What arts and crafts will you be teaching? (I taught Olivia the basics of knitting the other weekend -- she'd asked to learn how.) How about coiled baskets? (I am currently interested in them, see next post.)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-27 11:58 pm (UTC)