Mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find my daughter something to do while all her friends are off on their cool holidays to e.g. Disney World, Italy, Spain, Limerick, etc.
My wife and I have agreed that we are not doing something over the top this year, which we both hate to admit. Bloody hell, wouldn't you rather be somewhere where the sun is shining, jump into a nice pool and get a few mojito's while the kids are enjoying themselves?
- sorry got carried away!
My wife had this brilliant idea that our daughter could try horseback riding. Sounds like a great idea and how many of her mates can say they've been riding horses on their summer break.
So, we searched the internet, as you do nowadays, and found not only a riding school, but an equestrian centre - how posh is that?
Before we were going to put our daughter on a Black Beauty 8' tall horse, we decided to inspect the premises. Firstly, what was meant to be a 20 minutes drive, ended up being an hour adventure trying to find the bloody place. The scary bit is, the equestrian centre is located in a town called Kill!!! Not a good sign for a family friendly activity.
Anyway, we finally found the place and took an un-guided tour of the centre. Fairly impressive I must admit, so we signed her up for an hour.
€20 gets you about 40 minutes worth of riding, if you are a child. Seems fair enough and you can even borrow a helmet there. But, true to our shopping spirit, this became a bit more expensive than we signed up to.
The first lesson went really well and our daughter loved it. No, she didn't love it, she thought it was absolutely amazing, fantastic and had a high school musical happy experience. She absolutely wanted to go again.
So, my wife decided to get her some boots, which was a good idea. We found a local horse riding equipment shop in the outskirts of Kill, and this is were it went wrong.
Never let your daughter who loves horses and your wife who loves to get the right gear for the kids, loose in such a shop - bad combination. My son and I were slightly lost in the wilderness of equipment and went around to explore.
It is amazing the amount of stuff your daughter and wife can find and buy in less than 20 minutes. €150 later, we had bought all the stuff she needed - she was dressed as a pro. We even got a birthday card for our niece!
- I just hope the interest will last for a few months, to get some return of investment (ROI) on the goods we acquired.
It has now been 6 weeks and our daughter has been riding at least once a week, and she still loves it. My wife and I switch every second time, so we both can see her advance her riding skills and see our little Jessie Cow-girl giggle of happiness. Every parents dream.
My problem is unfortunately that I can't say no to my daughter and that I believe that kids need to learn from mistakes as I did - even if that means falling off the horse. Yes, you know what's coming up next.
It was my turn last weekend, and I was holding the horse (pony) as a good parent. When they had to trot, my daughter said firmly that she could do it alone and that I had to let go - so I did. 5 seconds into the trot, the fecking horse started to trot faster, and I was trying to keep up, running in the thick soil and horse pooh - not an easy task.
Then it happened, in slow motion. She started to slide off the horse and landed on the ground. Of course she got a fright and started to cry, so I picked her up. I couldn't care less about the horse, which annoyed the instructor I think.
Now, this is how tough my daughter is. She cried for 30 seconds and then she was ready to get back up on the horse. Of course I had to have a serious chat with the horse, and had to threaten it with our labrador (who doesn't hurt a fly) that he would bite the horses ass, if he didn't behave.
When we came home, my wife gave out to me for letting go of the horse. But, but, but, our daughter said she could do it!?
She is still riding the horse and loving it. Happy ending.
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