12 June, 2011
Ponies!
In truly stereotypical fashion, Hazel has become obsessed with horses - or ponies as she usually calls them. She would die to have one and regards anyone who does as extremely lucky. And she tells me that almost daily, inbetween pretending to be a pony who is lost and needs a new owner (me). Or sometimes she's a working pony who needs to pull things around behind her. Or a racing pony who gallops around maniacally and demands that you hold the reins.
She's not the only pony-obsessed little girl I know, the other day I overheard a conversation between two of her classmates, T and E.
E: ...and we could save up all our pocket money and buy a pony!
T: Oh E, that would take us years and years to do and we'd be all grown up.
E: Yeah [in a disappointed voice]... I knew someone who saved up and then she bought a pony and she was almost nine years old.
I wanted to hug them.
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We bought our daughter a pony. And then we sold our beautiful house in the city and moved to a daggy house on 2 acres of land outside the city. No regrets! Our daughter had really valuable experiences. She and the pony learned dressage, and did the whole horse show thing. I sewed waistcoats (but I had to buy the jackets and jodhpurs), made the pony browbands to match my daughter's outfits, and learned how to plait the pony's mane and tail. We all had heaps of fun. Eventually our daughter left home, the pony moved into another family with a little girl, and our property is now worth a crazy amount of money but we have renovated the house and we like it here so we're not selling. Buy her a really good, well-bred pony and you'll all live happily ever after!
ReplyDeleteIt's true! you will live happily ever after. I had ponies as a child - although not until I was about eight. my sister got her first one when I was born. It really was lovely.
ReplyDeleteI do know somewhere that does community lessons for a reasonable price though if you were looking for a more moderate approach...
So buying a pony is the secret to successful living eh? I love the idea! My husband's dream is to have a couple acre lifestyle block on the outskirts of Auckland and to have a few sheep to fatten up and maybe a cow (though he says no alpacas), so I guess a pony would fit into that scenario nicely! Not sure if we'll ever get there but it makes him happy to think about it. Hazel could have a pony if it lived at the pony club's grounds a couple blocks away, but that's under threat at the moment which is so sad.
ReplyDeleteI think lessons would be the sensible first step! Mats scared of the idea because we have a friend whose daughter started out this way and now she's competing at very high levels and costing a fortune!
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I adore horses! We live in the city though so I haven't been riding in years. My little girl was really taken with them when we last went and wanted one of her own until the very kind lady at the stables explained about mucking out and pointed to the JCB nearby explaining they need REALLY big poop-a-scoops! I nearly fell over laughing at the look on my girls face!
ReplyDeleteShe no longer wants one of her own and is more than happy to go to the local-ish stables!
Dream big! Save up for a unicorn :) Bless those girls. Is 9 considered old?
ReplyDeleteYes! Who needs a boring old pony if you can have a unicorn? Or better yet a Magical Pegasus unicorn. I'll get Hazel saving today.
ReplyDeleteI guess when you're 6, 9 years old must seem practically grown up. Hazel actually said so one day, which cracked me up though I managed to keep a straight face somehow.
That is awesome. This reminds me of when my sisters and I were preteen. We had a horse club where we'd meet to count up how much money we'd saved to buy our future horse (I'm pretty sure the money was mostly coin :). Then our dad told us that since we had sheep we couldn't have a horse because they got sick from sheep (which I found out much later was a LIE 'gasp'). So we bought a fish tank instead, which we, unfortunately, did not fill with sea horses.
ReplyDeleteOmigosh, this might as well be me you are talking about. I rarely was NOT acting like a horse as a child. I refused to run "normally" and instead galloped everywhere. Everyone still laughs about it. I never did get a pony. Sniff, sniff.
ReplyDeleteI remember my parents telling my brother and me that if we kept waking up our kittens to play with them they'd die from lack of sleep. I was so appalled at them lying to us like that when I realised it wasn't true, but as a parent I now totally understand why they did! Self-preservation.
ReplyDeleteNeither will Hazel, though she doesn't know it at the moment! But it's funny to watch her galloping down the sidewalk, tossing her mane and neighing and she's happy as larry.
ReplyDeleteI tried the whole mucking out the stables thing on Hazel last night, and Mat told her she'd have to go and take care of it every single day without fail, and it had the desired reaction! Yay! But now she's focussed on how she could have a pony without all the responsibilities. :P
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