Camp

Well, I had a lot of fun at camp. Once again, I was very frustrated at my inability to ride (sitting through two 1+ hour lessons a day for two days makes for a lot of ideas with nowhere to go!), but I had a wonderful time getting to know the other girls in Pony Club. I enjoyed watching them work with their horses, too. We slept in the loft of the barn, so getting up and down those steps every day was interesting. I also liked watching National Velvet and reading ghost stories around the campfire :) Then, this morning, everyone played some mounted games involving relay races and water balloons.

So we're off to look at this Appendix mare tomorrow, as the woman selling her emailed Mom back a few days ago. I'll tell you the full story about her after we're a little more decided on whether or not to get her! I know that if we do get her, it will be very hard work for me -- working enough hours to pay for her board/farrier/feed/whatever, as well as riding her frequently. It will certainly be a challenge to do all that in addition to doing well in school, but I'm pretty sure I can do it. Having two horses makes it possible for me to ride with my mom as well, which would theoretically make both of us more likely to ride.

I am also the kind of person that likes working towards something. With a project horse, it's very definable: I want said horse to be calm and respectful, to jump around a 3' course, to run XC reliably, to put together a solid dressage test, so that I can sell it sometime over the summer. Along the way, I get to learn a lot about training. With McKinna, I want to rate up in Pony Club, but more immediately, I want to fix my position; that's also very definable. It means lots of longe work, lots of no-stirrups work, and lots of cantering so we can fix the damned gait.


So -- I'm pretty tired from camp (9 girls mostly under the age of 14 at a camp, hmm), so I'm not feeling up to a real post today. I'm sure tomorrow I'll talk about my impression of the mare we're going to look at.

I'm off for a nap.