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Christmas Is Finally Over
| 04 January 2010
Well Christmas is finally over, and I have to say, although I love the time of year, I for one will be glad when everything is back to normal. The tree is coming down today, the cards were taken down and recycled (via my niece who turns them into more cards for next year), we have nearly eaten all the lovely, fattening Christmas sweets and chocolates and OH back to work tomorrow and Frankie back at school on Tuesday. Then I will have the house all to myself so I can tidy up properly and sort (throw) things out. There are still empty cardboard boxes at the side of the green bin, the box for glass and metal is overflowing with wine bottles and Quality Street tins. However now it is over for another year and things should get back to normal, as long as the weather improves that is!
Frankie has decided that due to the bad weather, at 5 years old, she is too little to have a pony. At the start of the school holidays she was very excited about riding every day, especially as I promised her a very long hack down to her nanny's house complete with a festively decorated pony. We had to make do with decorating pony on yard, and bringing a very reluctant Nanny to stables and going for a gentle walk round the still frozen school. That was Christmas Eve, and that was the last time she came to the stables with me. Luckily we have her in full livery, so I don't have to go up twice a day, but I do like to get up at least 4 times a week, if only to gossip with Yard Owner who is a very good friend of mine.
Frankie has decided that due to the bad weather, at 5 years old, she is too little to have a pony. At the start of the school holidays she was very excited about riding every day, especially as I promised her a very long hack down to her nanny's house complete with a festively decorated pony. We had to make do with decorating pony on yard, and bringing a very reluctant Nanny to stables and going for a gentle walk round the still frozen school. That was Christmas Eve, and that was the last time she came to the stables with me. Luckily we have her in full livery, so I don't have to go up twice a day, but I do like to get up at least 4 times a week, if only to gossip with Yard Owner who is a very good friend of mine.
Whenever I have been going up Frankie has decided that she was too busy, too tired, too cold or most surprisingly for a 5 year old, 'too busy tidying my bedroom mummy'. So I obviously have a fair weather horse owner for a daughter! So I was very surprised yesterday afternoon. Frankie had been invited to a birthday party at one of our friend’s houses at the other side of our village for 2 hours. The friends little boy is the same age as Frankie.. They have their ponies at home, and they have a couple of stables at the back of their house, with about 3 acres of grazing. I dropped Frankie off at 2pm, complete with her best, most favourite, newest, sparkly, prettiest Christmas clothes on, complete with sparkly new gold party shoes.
Went to see to our pony for a pleasant 2 hours de fluffing (pony now moulting) and turned back up at 4 pm expecting to collect a slightly hyper, slightly sticky little girl, with maybe jelly in her hair and ice cream stains on her top. Knocked on door, and a very harassed mum answered, who had jelly in HER hair and ice cream stains in her top, who advised me Frankie was in the stables. Now you can imagine my surprise. Frankie has her own (very lovely) pony, and has been no where near her for a fortnight, and was now in her best clothes, in someone else’s stables. We went down, and sure enough, there she was, with someone else’s wellies on, brushing someone else’s pony. 'Hello mummy' she called 'Come and see Horace, he's lovely' He was. I said hello to him, and said it was time to go. 'But mummy, we're going to ride in a minute, we're just waiting for you so L's mummy can ask you if it is OK?' L's mummy appeared over stable door, and asked if it was OK. So we spent a good hour tacking up the lovely Horace, and the children taking it in turns to ride round the field, Frankie in her best party clothes, L in a mini tuxedo, and L's mummy in jelly and ice cream.
Over restoring coffees for me and L's mum, and some more fizzy pop for the children, I mentioned to L's mummy that Frankie hadn't been to see her own pony for nearly 2 weeks, so was surprised that she had wanted to meet and ride the lovely Horace. L's mum told me that L hadn't been near the lovely Horace for 2 weeks either, apart from giving him his Christmas day carrot. We came to the conclusion that someone else's ponies are always more interesting, and one’s own ponies are always more interesting when someone else is there. So we now have to arrange for the children to meet up on their respective ponies and go for gentle hacks together, and if I know children, they will be swapping ponies the minute they meet, just in case they are missing something. I wouldn't mind so much, but the lovely Horace is a little Shetland cross, very similar to the one I was offered for free when I first mentioned Frankie riding. Ros is a nearly 100% Coed Coch Section A mare, that has won at county level and stood 3rd at the Great Yorkshire Show the year before we had her, and we paid an awful lot of money for her so Frankie had a chance of doing well in lead rein classes with her. Frankie has now decided she doesn't like the outfit for l/r classes, and doesn't fancy the idea of me in a hat, and has declared we are doing fancy dress next year instead, which the lovely Horace would excel at. Kids. You gotta ta love 'em!
Went to see to our pony for a pleasant 2 hours de fluffing (pony now moulting) and turned back up at 4 pm expecting to collect a slightly hyper, slightly sticky little girl, with maybe jelly in her hair and ice cream stains on her top. Knocked on door, and a very harassed mum answered, who had jelly in HER hair and ice cream stains in her top, who advised me Frankie was in the stables. Now you can imagine my surprise. Frankie has her own (very lovely) pony, and has been no where near her for a fortnight, and was now in her best clothes, in someone else’s stables. We went down, and sure enough, there she was, with someone else’s wellies on, brushing someone else’s pony. 'Hello mummy' she called 'Come and see Horace, he's lovely' He was. I said hello to him, and said it was time to go. 'But mummy, we're going to ride in a minute, we're just waiting for you so L's mummy can ask you if it is OK?' L's mummy appeared over stable door, and asked if it was OK. So we spent a good hour tacking up the lovely Horace, and the children taking it in turns to ride round the field, Frankie in her best party clothes, L in a mini tuxedo, and L's mummy in jelly and ice cream.
Over restoring coffees for me and L's mum, and some more fizzy pop for the children, I mentioned to L's mummy that Frankie hadn't been to see her own pony for nearly 2 weeks, so was surprised that she had wanted to meet and ride the lovely Horace. L's mum told me that L hadn't been near the lovely Horace for 2 weeks either, apart from giving him his Christmas day carrot. We came to the conclusion that someone else's ponies are always more interesting, and one’s own ponies are always more interesting when someone else is there. So we now have to arrange for the children to meet up on their respective ponies and go for gentle hacks together, and if I know children, they will be swapping ponies the minute they meet, just in case they are missing something. I wouldn't mind so much, but the lovely Horace is a little Shetland cross, very similar to the one I was offered for free when I first mentioned Frankie riding. Ros is a nearly 100% Coed Coch Section A mare, that has won at county level and stood 3rd at the Great Yorkshire Show the year before we had her, and we paid an awful lot of money for her so Frankie had a chance of doing well in lead rein classes with her. Frankie has now decided she doesn't like the outfit for l/r classes, and doesn't fancy the idea of me in a hat, and has declared we are doing fancy dress next year instead, which the lovely Horace would excel at. Kids. You gotta ta love 'em!
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