This weekend my oldest girl, my horsie girl, spent the weekend at a riding clinic. Watching her ride far better than I ever have, even when I was young and brave, makes me so happy.
Even before I started leasing a horse, I started my oldest daughter in lessons. Hoping she'd be bit by the horse bug as I was. She never really seems to love it, but she persevered, liking it enough to keep going. Her turning point seemed to be when I decided to buy both my girls a pony - suddenly for her it seemed that riding became more than just an expensive hobby. It was a madly impulsive decision, but I wanted both my girls to have the opportunity to ride. Truth be told, I thought my youngest daughter would be the natural rider. She, who will never have an issue explaining her point of view to man or animal.
But life happens and never in ways we predict. An incident involving bossy mares, a pony, some ice and Mom being run over left a pretty nasty aftertaste in my youngest daughter's mouth. She decided that she didn't like or trust horses at all - something I blame myself for because I pushed her too hard, and even as a toddler, she was very clear that she won't ever be pushed around - the pony was sold, and we began the odyssey to buy THE mother/daughter horse. Safe for Mom, and athletic enough for daughter.
My oldest daughter started to really enjoy the competitive aspect of riding, she loved perfecting her skills and began to see herself as a rider. Much as I groan and moan about how the mother/daughter horse rapidly became the daughters horse, and Mom was relegated to the difficult to ride and not very athletic, super sweet mare, watching my daughter develop the determination, kindness and focus necessary to train a horse while learning herself makes me one very proud Mama.
And, the time we spend going to and from the barn, talking about shows, coaches, equipment, farriers is time well spent. The friends we have made, our barn family, is a huge part of our life. And, this time is my hook into my private and contained teenager, this soon to be adult, who just yesterday was my tiny baby girl.