[chronicles] All the Pretty Ponies
Mar. 23rd, 2010 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redroanchroniclesAs some of you may know, I am a child-hating curmudgeon.
Okay, that's hyperbole. I admit it. I don't actually hate children. (They're just like people, only smaller.) It's just that I don't understand children. I'm the youngest child in my family, and I didn't have one of those childhoods with younger cousins running around or anything like that. I never dealt with people younger than me, so I basically am just perplexed by them. I have no idea how to deal with kids, and since the bulk of my experience with kids is neighbor children shouting "HI!" at me and then following it up with a stream of undecipherable gibberish, I find the idea of being around children kind of intimidating.
Which is why it's a little odd that I harbor a secret dream to start up a horsemanship program for kids. It all stems from that same basic instinct that adults have to live vicariously through their children, except that I don't want to have children (sure, they can visit, but I want to be able to send them home again), so I want to live vicariously through other people's children. I'd love to see kids have the opportunities that I didn't. (So, logically speaking, I should be starting a mounted languages-music-and-baseball program.) And possibly, I've watched too many episodes of The Saddle Club.
Yes, I know I'm nearly 30. No, I don't intend to stop watching The Saddle Club. EVER.
I like to keep an eye on craigslist and Dreamhorse to see what sort of horses are selling and what prices people are asking. Lately there have been a lot of lovely little ponies selling for a song, and I can't help but think how nice it would be to gather them up in one place and teach children to ride on them. (I also have a secret plan to train BLM burros to be riding mounts for children. If I were rich enough to actually implement any of my plans, my life would become a constant series of hilarious follies suitable for reality television.) Normally, the urge to do insane things like teaching kids to ride horses -- which presumably I would do this a good ten or twenty years down the road, when I've actually turned myself into a good rider -- isn't very overpowering. But then I see something like this.
I shot photos at an equine playday recently at my local fairgrounds, and this young lady was riding this cute little pony. And when it came to the gaming section, the pony made it clear that he was familiar with running barrels, and that he was having none of it. He started to... misbehave. He tried to reinforce every stereotype about ponies ever.
His young rider just took it slow around the barrels, kept her cool, kept her seat, and smiled. Instead of losing her temper, she just held her ground and grinned. I'm not sure if she's a member of our local Pony Club, but I wouldn't be surprised. I would love to one day help create riders like this one, the way that my own riding instructor -- who coaches the local Pony Club -- does now.
And this girl wasn't the only whippersnapper out there riding up a storm, either.
I believe it was mentioned that this rider is only five. Her horse appears to be saint-like. They tackled the flat classes and barrels like they'd been doing it all their lives, which for the rider just isn't a very long time. I do wish her helmet was properly fitted and adjusted, though. See? I have maternal instincts after all.
This poor rider did not have a good day -- her pony bolted with her aboard and there was a collision with a fence involved -- but they were still a pretty adorable pair.
So I'm prepared to admit it.
I like kids.
I am prepared to admit to also liking teens, pre-teens, tweens, and other things that end in "eens." (Maureens?)
And yes, I DO believe the children are our future! I BELIEVE IT!
And I think it's safe to say that the future is pretty photogenic.
And also colorful.
Anyway, I guess all that's left at this point is to "teach them well and let them lead the way," which is where I hope to one day come into the equation. Because obviously, they need me. It's not like they're doing perfectly well without my intervention. If I wasn't there to help them, what would they do with themselves? I mean, besides win ribbons and have a good time and stuff.
Going to shows and playdays and whatnot, I've seen a lot of kids who get into the ring and get that fierce and scary look on their faces that means they aren't entirely having a good time. (That was totally me as a child. I feel their intensely-concentrating pain.) I've also seen a lot of kids who are in the ring because their parents put them there, not because they're particularly excited for -- or ready for -- climbing onto the back of an animal. But I figure if you put them in the ring, and things don't go exactly as they (or you) planned, and they still come out of it looking like this rider? Then maybe the kids are alright, after all.
Okay, that's hyperbole. I admit it. I don't actually hate children. (They're just like people, only smaller.) It's just that I don't understand children. I'm the youngest child in my family, and I didn't have one of those childhoods with younger cousins running around or anything like that. I never dealt with people younger than me, so I basically am just perplexed by them. I have no idea how to deal with kids, and since the bulk of my experience with kids is neighbor children shouting "HI!" at me and then following it up with a stream of undecipherable gibberish, I find the idea of being around children kind of intimidating.
Which is why it's a little odd that I harbor a secret dream to start up a horsemanship program for kids. It all stems from that same basic instinct that adults have to live vicariously through their children, except that I don't want to have children (sure, they can visit, but I want to be able to send them home again), so I want to live vicariously through other people's children. I'd love to see kids have the opportunities that I didn't. (So, logically speaking, I should be starting a mounted languages-music-and-baseball program.) And possibly, I've watched too many episodes of The Saddle Club.
Yes, I know I'm nearly 30. No, I don't intend to stop watching The Saddle Club. EVER.
I like to keep an eye on craigslist and Dreamhorse to see what sort of horses are selling and what prices people are asking. Lately there have been a lot of lovely little ponies selling for a song, and I can't help but think how nice it would be to gather them up in one place and teach children to ride on them. (I also have a secret plan to train BLM burros to be riding mounts for children. If I were rich enough to actually implement any of my plans, my life would become a constant series of hilarious follies suitable for reality television.) Normally, the urge to do insane things like teaching kids to ride horses -- which presumably I would do this a good ten or twenty years down the road, when I've actually turned myself into a good rider -- isn't very overpowering. But then I see something like this.
I shot photos at an equine playday recently at my local fairgrounds, and this young lady was riding this cute little pony. And when it came to the gaming section, the pony made it clear that he was familiar with running barrels, and that he was having none of it. He started to... misbehave. He tried to reinforce every stereotype about ponies ever.
His young rider just took it slow around the barrels, kept her cool, kept her seat, and smiled. Instead of losing her temper, she just held her ground and grinned. I'm not sure if she's a member of our local Pony Club, but I wouldn't be surprised. I would love to one day help create riders like this one, the way that my own riding instructor -- who coaches the local Pony Club -- does now.
And this girl wasn't the only whippersnapper out there riding up a storm, either.
I believe it was mentioned that this rider is only five. Her horse appears to be saint-like. They tackled the flat classes and barrels like they'd been doing it all their lives, which for the rider just isn't a very long time. I do wish her helmet was properly fitted and adjusted, though. See? I have maternal instincts after all.
This poor rider did not have a good day -- her pony bolted with her aboard and there was a collision with a fence involved -- but they were still a pretty adorable pair.
So I'm prepared to admit it.
I like kids.
I am prepared to admit to also liking teens, pre-teens, tweens, and other things that end in "eens." (Maureens?)
And yes, I DO believe the children are our future! I BELIEVE IT!
And I think it's safe to say that the future is pretty photogenic.
And also colorful.
Anyway, I guess all that's left at this point is to "teach them well and let them lead the way," which is where I hope to one day come into the equation. Because obviously, they need me. It's not like they're doing perfectly well without my intervention. If I wasn't there to help them, what would they do with themselves? I mean, besides win ribbons and have a good time and stuff.
Going to shows and playdays and whatnot, I've seen a lot of kids who get into the ring and get that fierce and scary look on their faces that means they aren't entirely having a good time. (That was totally me as a child. I feel their intensely-concentrating pain.) I've also seen a lot of kids who are in the ring because their parents put them there, not because they're particularly excited for -- or ready for -- climbing onto the back of an animal. But I figure if you put them in the ring, and things don't go exactly as they (or you) planned, and they still come out of it looking like this rider? Then maybe the kids are alright, after all.
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Date: 2010-03-23 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-23 10:55 pm (UTC)Possibly I think about this too much. ;D
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Date: 2010-03-23 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 12:59 am (UTC)I would also like to see The Future riding in a snaffle and sitting up straight, but wtf. :D
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Date: 2010-03-24 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 01:47 am (UTC)I do wonder sometimes if it's safer to wear no helmet at all than an ill-fitting helmet, though. Most people I've seen wearing helmets at these playdays have had helmets that either are very poorly adjusted, are worn completely incorrectly, or just plain don't fit them, and I always wondered if they got into a wreck, whether the helmet would just cause horrible damage to their spinal cords or something. Some of them, I'm sure, would just fail to stay on the person's head...
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Date: 2010-03-24 03:33 am (UTC)I'm very diligent about bicycle helmets, and on the (few) occasions when we've put Herself up on a horse, we've made her wear her bike helmet, but...yeah, I don't know enough about riding helmets to have an informed opinion. Bicycling, I'm religious about it, because yeah -- have taken enough knocks that I don't want to take any more I don't have to.
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Date: 2010-03-24 01:30 am (UTC)I'm in a similar boat. I never want to birth children, ever, but I do like interacting with them. I think our type perhaps never hated kids, they just hated the idea of being a caretaker (which is hard work that I think anyone who does that is a freaking saint).
I'd like to play games with kids and then give them back at the end of the day. XD
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Date: 2010-03-24 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 03:11 am (UTC)B) THEY MADE SADDLE CLUB TEEVEE??? HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?!
C) When I was a teen, I volunteered at a program that taught riding to kids with mental, emotional and physical problems. It was pretty much the best thing ever. Nothing like seeing a little girl who usually did not want anything to do with us anyway grinning away like there was no tomorrow from the back of an old Percheron broodmare.
D) Crap, I've deleted all my horse icons. I'll have to remedy this.
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Date: 2010-03-24 04:49 pm (UTC)B) THEY TOTALLY MADE SADDLE CLUB TEEVEE OMFG!!!! Not only that, but they made a couple of different versions; the one I usually watch has slightly older kids, but then one day I tivoed it and it was the same characters but suddenly they were younger and completely new actors. I was so confused. :D (This is the one with the unfamiliar cast; I can only assume that the original girls got too old and they decided to continue the show with different people.) This is the one I've usually watched, and apparently you can buy it on DVD. *tries not to be tempted* On my cable network it airs almost daily on Discovery Kids (I should totally set it up to DVR it), and I think when I had satellite it was on PBS or something.
C) You are awesome. I'd really love to work for a program for troubled kids, but I also feel like there aren't enough opportunities for kids who aren't in trouble but are just poor. That was me as a kid, and I can't tell you how bitter I was that there were no programs like Outward Bound for me unless I turned myself into a criminal. :D There's a therapeutic riding program up here that uses fjords, which are the cutest things ever, but my friend volunteers up there every now and again and she says that their horses are really mean... they bite and kick like it's their religion. Which kind of to me means they're unsuitable for disabled kids, but whatever.
D) YES DO IT. Horse icons are important. Especially ones with cute and kissable Juno foreheads. ;)