Bringing the Wild West to Australia

Costume Day at Horse Riding Lessons with Coach Leah

In preparation for realizing our farm dream, we enrolled the kids in riding lessons (on Tuesdays) at the local Riding for the Disabled organization, or RDA as they call it here.  This was something we looked into doing when we first came to Australia, but originally decided against it.  In hind sight, we should have done it way back when we first looked into it.  The kids absolutely love it!  The other great thing about the "riding lessons" is that it isn't just riding lessons - the kids learn how to care for horses; saddle them, brush them, bridle them, pick hooves, etc.  In doing all these things, they are taught safety around horses and they get a glimpse into a horse's behavior/personality when doing all of these various tasks.  It is very good for them and will go a long way toward getting them used to being around horses.

Hilary and I also volunteered to feed the horses once a week (on Sunday evenings), which the kids also help with.  We have to prepare the horses' food in the stalls while they are still out in the paddock.  After that is done, we have to "catch" the horses and bring them in for feeding and then scoop up all of the manure from their fields.  If the horses think we are catching them to put them to work, they put their ears down and try to get away from us.  If they think it is eating time, they are our best friends and line up at the gate and crowd us so much that it almost makes it difficult to keep them from sneaking out.  Last week, we tried to go in five-on-five (there are 5 horses, one for each of us if the kids are helping) and failed miserably and Jones ended up getting his foot stepped on when one of the bigger horses saw some nice grass near the fence and pinned Jones up against it while he ate the grass.  Jones originally left the paddock with one of the smaller, more ornery horses, but that horse started dragging Jones around everywhere.  Since my larger horse was doing fine, I switched with him, and that is when the horses also switched temperaments!  Now I had the smaller, well behaved horse and Jones had the larger, ornery horse!  The other kids had similar problems, and it was hard for either Hilary or I to help when we each had a horse of our own.  Needless to say, we will only be doing two at a time now, so that Hilary and I can help until the kids have a little more confidence in handling the horses by themselves - so far that has worked out great.  The horses behave much differently when they think they are going to eat than they do when they are saddled up!  Fortunately, Jones' foot is fine, as is his psyche! 

One of the instructors pointed out that part of the problem with these horses is that they see so many people, they don't get a chance to build bonds with only a few people, and so don't really build bonds with anyone.  You get the feeling that they just tolerate people until they can eat.  They recently just retired a horse named Steel that finally had enough of "people" and started having behavioral issues.  Since they do a lot of work with disabled kids, the horses must be very docile or they get sold.  The RDA said they were trying to sell Steel as a lawn mower and said he was now a one-owner horse.

After only three weeks, the kids are riding, turning, trotting - oh yes - and stopping, all on their own.  There is always an instructor walking along with them.  Beaux's horse is named Frodo, Jax's horse is named Jack-O and Jones's horse is named Harley.  All of the RDA's horses are boys.  The other two that the kids haven't ridden yet are named Spinner and Bundy - these are the two largest horses.  The kids may get the chance to ride them soon, as the main instructor isn't really happy with how long the stirrups are for the boys on the smaller horses.  Frodo is the biggest of the three horses that the kids ride.  The boys do look quite large on their little ponies. 

All in all, it is really quite fun.  We just got back from our Sunday feeding a few hours ago, and everyone again had a blast.  Thus far, it is as we always thought it would be.  God has made this amazing, large, majestic animal, and just being around them brings an awe and a settling of the soul!

Trent