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More Time at the Horse Stables

January 24, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

  kids-horse-riding-lessons

{A} has loved every minute at the stables with the horses, and learning every bit she can take in.   The trainer said “She’s a natural.”

I am looking forward to her horse riding outside, come springtime, when she continues some lessons.  When there will LIGHT and COLOR.  And WARMTH.  That will make for prettier photos, I think.  These lessons have been nothing less than frigid.  Even in the arena….just bitter cold.  We leave with numb fingers and toes.  And there’s always a smile frozen on {A}’s face, too.

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She has to clean her horse’s shoes every time, before she rides him, as well as brush him.  It can be a real task cleaning his shoes well, but thankfully he’s a co-operative horse. So that makes it easier than it could be.

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He’s all ready to dress and ride.  Handsome boy, isn’t he?

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{A} has learned to ‘post’.  Which is that bouncing you see English riders do, when the horse goes into a bit of a gallop.  Once she learned how to stay in the saddle while ‘posting’, she was all set.

She’s been wearing her Daddy’s gloves to try and keep her hands warmer.  Come to think of it, that’s my jacket she has on.

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Yes, spring photos will be so much better.

These stables have little birds flying around all over the place inside.  I forget what kind of birds they are. {A} would know, but she’s asleep at the moment.  What a nice shelter for them though.

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They also have a couple of rabbits.  I approached their cage slowly, but I could tell my camera made this little guy nervous.  He probably wet the hay a little,  when my shutter went off.  So I just took one shot.  I heard rabbits can have heart attacks rather easily, and I sure didn’t want to be responsible for that!

Hey-Guess what??

On Monday I am going to start posting, intermittently over the following days/weeks, our Christmas Crafts reveals.  Anybody been waiting for that?  I posted the kids busy crafting gifts, right along through the pre-Christmas season.  But now will come photos of the finished products, materials, tools and techniques used to make them, and where to get everything you need!   We’ve been waiting to post it all, so we’re excited.  Lots of COLORFUL PHOTOS and FUN!!  So all you who may want to do some lovely crafty-gifts this year, for Christmas or anytime,  get out your notepads!  We’ve got at least a few ideas coming your way that we think you’ll enjoy.  We sure enjoyed making them, and giving them to the people we love.

Until then!!

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Life In General, The Big Picture Tagged With: english-horse-riding, English-horse-riding-lessons, english-horse-riding-lessons-for-kids, homeschooling, homeschooling-learning-experience-ideas, horse-stables

A Horse Education

January 7, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

After a nice long Christmas break, we’re happily back to our familiar (home) school day routines, with some new experiences for all of the kids getting thrown into the mix.  There will be more on the other kids coming up soon, but this happens to be another post about {A}.

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{A} has always loved horses, about as much as I did when I was her age.  I have always wanted a horse. As a kid, I had horse posters all over my side of the room walls.  I can’t remember if that was before or after the Shaun Cassidy posters.  (My sister,  preferred Parker Stevenson, so I think she didn’t mind the horse posters as much.)  Back then, I was getting a great horse magazine subscription called “Horse, of Course”, or something like that.  In it, there was a lot of great horse photos,  articles, and stories, and a pull out poster in each!  So {A} and I definitely share a love for horses. But she has already had the opportunity to be with horses more than I ever did at her age. We have a friend who owns a horse rescue farm, where we go from time to time, and {A} hopes to work there some, as soon as she’s a little older and strong enough.

So for Christmas, on Christmas morning, we gave {A} a gift certificate for horse riding lessons, with an experienced trainer, Pamela Ring, at Dreamer Stables.  When {A} opened that envelope and read the certificate she pulled out, she let out a big “WHOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!“, even startling some in the room, who weren’t paying attention at the moment. She about knocked us over with her hugs, too!

A couple of days ago was her first lesson.  The wonderful thing is, she’ll be learning a lot more about horses, than just how to ride them.  She’s learning all about them;  how to interact with them, how to care for them, and how to dress and undress them, which she’ll be needing to do herself before and after riding riding. She has read so many books on horses, and knows quite about them, and their gear.  But nothing beats hands on experience and spending time with these magnificent and beautiful creatures.  She was beaming at her first lesson.

Now before moving on here, I just have to say, first…. that these are some of the absolute worst photos I have ever taken.  Ugh. But..I was very limited in what I could do to get better shots. Despite how the photos look now,  the stable was actually very, very dark, with horrible hanging lighting.   I lightened them some, but a little flash would have been ideal in this case, with very little natural light source (and none in the arena.)  But, flash is not allowed, as to not possibly startle the horses, or something. So….that’s the end of my excuses about the lousy photos. Here we go…..

{A}, brushing twice, with 2 different brushes.

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Using an ice pick tool, to remove ice and any rocks (or what-not ; )  from their shoes.

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Learning how to dress the horse properly, layer by layer, for riding.

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Getting comfortable riding, and learning all of the commands.

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One happy rider.

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Unbuckling buckles to remove the horse’s bridle off of his head.

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She can’t wait to go back next week. Horses are in her heart, much like chipmunks and training them are, along with good handful of other things that mean a lot to her.

One of the many, many reasons we decided to home school our kids, is to give them an abundance of free time.  Time to imagine and create. Time to listen to, and follow their own hearts, and explore what calls them.  Time to have lots of experiences out in the real world, hands on, and be educated through them.  Time to discover some of their passions, and follow them if they choose to.  Time to be with themselves, enough to focus on themselves, be who they are, and develop into all they want to be. Time to hear the whispers of God in their heart. Time is such a gift, for anyone! But more time to just be a child, whose heart and mind may not yet be inundated with wordly stuff, pressures and distractions, is a gift all it’s own.  It’s these kinds of experiences out in the world, at a young age, that will certainly be remembered, and influence the rest of their lives.

Speaking of time, it’s time for my nightly routine before bedtime. Thanks for dropping by once again.  We hope you all find that 2009 is going pretty well for you so far!

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Filed Under: Homeschooling, Middle School Homeschooling, The Big Picture Tagged With: English-horse-riding-lessons, horse-riding, horses

We are wicked happy to have you here! We hope you find much inspiration, help, humor and enjoyment here.




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