Tuesday 29 July 2008

Completely forgot to post about this!!!

Naughty Mummy!! I completely forgot to blog about Little Prince's first riding lesson!! It was last week after his last day of school, perhaps not that great timing looking back on it!! We arrived a little early at the stables so that Little Prince could be fitted with a hat, luckily they had one in his size (000 1/2!!). He was then introduced to both his instructor and the girl who would be leading the pony, and they introduced him to the pony Ellie. He had a private lesson on his own with the instructor and leader for this first time, and within minutes I could tell that he wasn't going to be that co-operative for them!! They were both a similar age to LMS and he could have done with someone older and with a bit more authority behind them!! The lesson was conducted in the enclosed Sand School and consisted mainly of being led round in a circle and being show how to make the horse turn, stop, go and trot. The instructor also got Little Prince to let go of the reins and touch his head, shoulders and knees, first while stood still and then while the pony was moving. This held Little Prince's interest for a while, but soon they were back to the walking round the arena! Little Prince said he wanted to jump over things, he'd spied the jumps set up in the field next door. He was mightily disappointed that he was only allowed to walk over poles placed on the ground!! And once again back to walking round and round! For a child with attention difficulties it must have been excrutiatingly boring!! As demonstrated by Little Prince yelling "Trot on Ellie! Trot on!" as he continuely tried to get the poor pony to go faster! After about 15 minutes it was obvious that he had had enough, the girls gamely persuaded him to last another five minutes but that was all he could manage. They gave up when he started to pull his feet out of the stirrups and try to get off while they were still walking round!! So Little Prince's first formal riding lesson didn't go as well as I'd hoped! I'm going to contact the stables after we return from our holidays and see if they can devise a more interesting lesson for him, if not I think riding will have to wait until he is a little older and his attention span has improved somewhat!!

2 comments:

Shawnstribe said...

oh no Janet...im right there with lil prince...riding in arenas are boring!!!!!
he did well to last that long, bless ; )
yeah i know we all have to start somewhere but when you are a lil prince, the only riding that will do is....galloping over the hills to a far away castle to find your princess; )

oops, notyet hey.....wrong age, we musn't encourage him too soon....how about to find an ....ice cream : )
xxx
s

Janet said...

Hi S,
I love the picture you paint of Little Prince galloping across the hills to a far away castle to find his ice cream :-) And yes I think we'll leave Princesses for a few years yet lol.
We are hoping to go riding while we are on holiday in America the next couple of weeks, perhaps he'll find that more entertaining?!?!
Take care (especially of XX's fingers)
Love
Janet


OUR ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION TIMELINE


25th May 2009 - See New Child again & Court Date

23rd May 2009 - Fly back to Ethiopia

26th March 2009 - Fly to Ethiopia :-)

3rd March 2009 - Dossier Arrived at Orphanage

26th February 2009 - Dossier sent to Ethiopia

22nd December 2008 - Dossier back at DCSF

28th November 2008 - Certificate of Eligibility ISSUED

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7th July 2008 - Homestudy Update Started

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OUR CHINA ADOPTION TIMELINE

Formally withdrew from the China Adoption Programme 17th July 2008

LID (Logged in Date) with CCAA 16th August 2007

Documents to China 10th August 2007

Passed Approval Panel 5th March 2007

Homestudy started 6th June 2006

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