Horse Show – 2010

Lindsay performed in the Winton Woods Riding Center Horse Show today.  Two weeks ago she was paired with her black and white horse “Domino”, a young male horse who is lively and quick.  Lindsay spent two weeks grooming him, cleaning up after him, working and riding with him and bringing him treats of apples and carrots.  It didn’t take her long to fall in love.

Lindsay appears at ease with her horse and seems very natural as she guides and controls.  Her instructor told me last week that Lindsay does well even on Domino who is not the easiest horse for young riders.

It appears to me that there are two groups of girls at Horse Camp; a group of girls who come from money and take riding lessons because it’s the “thing” to do and it fills time.  They also tend to whine about everything; even whining at the horses as I’ve watched and they have parents at pick-up who indulge them in their whininess presumably because they don’t seem to quite know what else to do.  Then there’s the group of Horse Lover’s.  They are easy going, more natural and are there for no other reason than they love horses.  Not the “thing” to do, these girls and their families have worked hard to give them this experience.

The experience is soooooo worth it for this group of girls.

It’s a real confidence booster to be able to work successfully with such a large animal. 

I had to quickly pull Nathan back out from under the fence several times.  He loved seeing the horses up close enough to get their dust in his face.

Lindsay’s favorite… trotting!

Domino is wearing a Western saddle instead of the English saddle she was hoping to put on him.

Lindsay was asked to go first weaving in and out of the posts.  She did beautifully.

I like this above picture because Lindsay had just gotten off of Domino and he kind of turned and nuzzled with her for a minute as if to say he really enjoyed being with her and he would miss her too.  It was a very sweet scene.

Tristan visits and pets Domino in the cross ties.

Tonight there are tears over missing Domino and Lindsay is planning a list of all the things she can do without so that she can go back to horse camp next year.  She is counting down the years until she is old enough to go volunteer there as well and is trying to figure out how to create a good enough resume so they will choose her.  Good luck to her!  I’m sure she’ll figure it out.

We stopped for a picnic lunch afterward, looking for the shade of trees WITHOUT Daddy-long-legs crawling everywhere.  Kaitlyn ended up having one halfway up her leg.  Then there were blood-curdling screams to be heard .

Strawberries were a huge hit at lunchtime.

Nathan decided to grab a nap while he could and stayed asleep from the car to the stroller and 30 minutes into lunch.

He did wake up for cookies and milk after eating his sandwich.  It was a fun morning.