Thursday, July 26, 2007

Call It Amy and the Dream of Horses

Dream of horses, ba da dum bop, you dream of horses, ba da dum bop....

Even though it's three weeks since the 4th of July, I still wanted to post about our activities for that week. There are a lot of pictures to slog through so I asked Onil to make a movie and I'll post it here. I asked a week and a half ago, though, so who knows when we'll get that. :o\

While we're waiting, I wanted to share some pictures of Amy riding. Amy's been taking horsemanship lessons for close to a year now. Her usual day is Wednesday which means that because I work in NYC I can't go to see her ride unless I have the week off from work. The bright side of not seeing her ride every week is that I got to see how much she has improved. And boy, has she improved a lot. She started riding last fall and I saw her in December. She was good but very much a beginner -- she needed to learn a lot. I just saw her ride again on July 4th, and she has definitely come a long way. I love her posting form and the cool way she handles the rails and jumps. It helps that the horse she rides is pretty calm and easy-going (she just doesn't like other horses, which, sister, I can relate -- there are plenty of times I don't like my species either). The horse's name is Duchess and she's big and sometimes grumpy but she's a good horse overall.

This weekend Amy and Anna are going to overnight camp in the Poconos (the same one I went to as a kid) and Amy will be a corral-aide for the first time. This involves getting up at 5 in the morning, mucking out stalls, feeding and brushing the horses, cleaning the tack, and generally anything that needs to be done in the stable. For girls who love horses, this is a dream come true. Hopefully Amy will enjoy herself as well.

Here are some pictures of Amy and Duchy:

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2 comments:

TURBOchic said...

I did the horseback riding thing throughout high school as well. Even taught a few lessons toward the end. I still love horses, but with all my pets and responsibilities now I know I don't want to own one. Looking abck however, I know that your daughter will love horse camp and come back wanting her own horse.

Faith said...

I would love to get a horse some day, too, but I don't know if I want the additional responsibility. A cat, a hamster and an occasional dog is enough for me.

She would like to have her own horse -- Duchess. She's told me that if she could ever have the place or the money for a horse of her own she'd like to buy Duchess.