I know!!!

How many times has your child/children said that to you when you TOTALLY know that they don't know? It drives me insane because apparently, at 9 years old Molly knows everything. (Which translates into I know nothing). I guess I just have a child genius on my hands and have never recognized this gift.



Today Molly showed at our local hunter show. The weather has been so nice and fall like until today when it turned back into summer and 90+ degrees. Of course! Because of the heat, they were trying to move the show along so they were not splitting the classes that would normally have been split. As a result, Molly had 11 in the mini stirrups. We are a little burned out with showing at this point, that I really did not care as long as it meant we could get home sooner.



The classes were fine and lasted about 5-7 minutes each. Even though there were 11 kids, there were a good 3-5 that were really not competitive - you know, basically hanging on by the seat of their pants. Molly was either 4th or 6th in every class - nothing higher and nothing in the middle - just 4th or 6th.



Schooling for the cross rail class was a little crazy with 11 horses and 3-5 kids who could barely steer - add in one stupid short stirrup rider who insisted on schooling with the mini's and was trying to jump the diagonal lines! Anyway, Molly KNEW how to school the course and kept encouraging Treenie to canter down the lines. Now she does know that that is not our plan. She is supposed to trot in and trot out both lines. She finally got it right after 3 times around so we quit before poor Treener's dropped dead on us.



Molly was 5th to go - as the 3rd kid was going I started going over the plan with Molly - 1) they specifically said no opening circle so get a nice trot as soon as you get in. 2) Get lined up with the first jump and look straight down the line. 3) Keep your heels down and eyes up... at this point I got the "I KNOW" smart remark. Rather than argue with her I told her to watch her mouth and dropped it.



So, in she goes - points 1-3 were great. I was sure she was on her way to a great ribbon - maybe even winning it. The she jumped the 3rd jump and proceeded to let Treenie canter down the line towards home. That's it - pack up and go home because now she was no longer consistent. I was livid! Molly totally knows the plan - she also totally knows how to sit up and whoa to get Treenie back to the trot. There was no excuse for this other than that she wanted to canter.

Surprisingly, Molly ended up 4th for the class - considering the inconsistency, I thought she got lucky. Molly on the other hand thought that it just meant that it wasn't so important to stick to your plan.

I REALLY need to send her to a show with her trainer as opposed to me. Hover, there is a problem with this - Our barn really only goes to stupid recognized shows which charge an obscene amount of money - the closest for example charges $25 per class, $25 Grounds fee, $17 Drug fee. Add to that $60 trainer fee and the dinky mini or short stirrups - which are unrecognized end up costing $202!!! And that's if I bring the pony over - it is another $85 if I pay for trailering. I'm sorry, but I just can't swallow that. Especially when we have been showing all summer for $65 on the cheap end and $80 in the high end. I have tried to encourage these guys to go to some of the local shows, but they are just not interested. It also kills me that my friends buy into this whole hog and just fork over butt loads of money every month when they don't have to.

So, it looks like Molly and I are stuck with each other for next season also - I just wish that she would realize and accept that I really do know what I am talking about and just listen to me - I know - never going to happen!

You've GOT to be kidding me!

Each week at camp they have "dress up". The kids come up with costumes for their horses/ponies and they have a parade. Of course, we are always scrambling at the last minute because you can not find costume stuff in July/August! I had the brainstorm that we could use our "Man in the yellow Hat" costume and Molly could be Curious George.

Here is my poor Lexi being the sport that he is (the painted saint) and Molly with 1/2 of her CG costume. I missed the "main event" of the costume extravaganza, but apparently, all of the kids were different characters from the Curious George cartoon and Lexi actually carried around Molly and another girl at the same time.

Lexi is a good boy - you can literally do anything to him - however, take a good look at the expression on his face - "I will not hurt her, but YOU will pay for this!" Fortunately we left for vaca the next day - I think he forgot about it.

Dressage Divas

Whew! We have had a whirlwind summer! I thought things would just coast along, but we were BUSY! Molly continued to horseshow throughout July and August - we even worked some of our vacations around her showing.

The kids officially kicked off summer with a "family" week at the beach - I stayed home and had a VERY nice week to myself. Then things jumped into full swing with camp and Thursday Dressage Shows.

Despite the fact that Molly has told me she hates dressage, she has continued to get REALLY good scores in the intro tests ( she is consistently scoring in the mid 60's!). We all even did the regular schooling show in June (Molly, me and the lady who 1/2 leases my horse ALL showed). We all got great scores - I even broke 70 for the first time! We also ALL qualified for our GMO dressage championships! Only the lady who leases Lexi is going to go. Molly, K and I are saving ourselves for the smaller local championship show.

There are some people "in our circle" that downplay our successes because we only do local/schooling shows. The bottom line is that we really only have local/schooling show level horses ( my poor horse broke his hip for crying out loud). I scribe and work at a fair amount of horseshows - I am totally open eyed to the fact that we would be completely outclassed at recognized shows. And you know what, that's okay because we found an appropriate arena to compete. We are competitive at these shows and we have fun. That's what it is all about. So we will continue to compete for our local year end awards and GMO awards because it's fun. I am sure that everyone reading this blog knows that horses and showing cost way too much to not get any enjoyment!

Both Molly and her best bud K have gotten really positive feedback from the judges. Helpful, constructive upbeat feedback - just like in the mini stirrups - NOT! This is one of the reasons that I push Molly to do this (and the fact that I am a BIG dressage fan and it is something we can do together - Lexi's hunter/jumper days are over.) I keep telling Molly and K that they will appreciate this background in the future. After all, who can argue that learning to keep a steady rhythm, make round circles, bend in the correct direction and keep your horse straight are not skills everyone needs to master?

So, since the only lessons Molly has had were during the 3 weeks she spent at the barn at camp, I set up real dressage lessons for her and I with a real dressage trainer at a real dressage barn! Molly is not so thrilled, but I can't wait! I have not had a lesson since before Lexi broke his hip in November. It just did not make sense to me to pay for lessons for myself while I rehabbed Lexi when Molly certainly needed the instruction. Balancing the costs of two horses is a challenge.

September and October will be busy show months for us. Starting this weekend, I will be at a show either with Molly or with my lessee just about every weekend. The hubby is not going to be thrilled but this is the big finale and the last push for points for year end awards. Before you know it, winter will be here and shows will be hard to come by!