Amy Allen Photography

This past Fall, Olivia (our 10 year old) asked us if we would sign her up for ‘horse lessons.’ I thought it sounded fun! Soon we learned it was English riding, not Western — but, what did that mean?  Turns our it meant trips to the local tack shop for half chaps, a crop, a high-end helmet and horse treats…. and that was just the beginning!

Getting her to and from lessons has turned out to be the easy part — especially since the Valley Park Stables are only a few miles from our house. As parents new to the horse scene, we loved to watch our daughter get her lesson horse ready. We went into the activity with the fun factor foremost in thought, all the while expecting that after a few months Livi would become bored with it all and move onto something else.

But after a few months, we have come to discover that she is actually pretty good at this horse thing — to the point that she won first place ribbons at both of the shows she has entered. I have had to pick my jaw up off the floor a few times after hearing her name announced!  Some of the riders with whom she is competing have literally been doing this for years!

When people come up to us at shows and say things like, “You better start saving for her horse” or “Be prepared to drop a lot of money on this sport!” we laugh and say to one another, “We will never be those parents!”

But after all of her first place wins yesterday, I walked up to her and said, “Olivia, I am going to buy you those riding pants legging things and a black blazer!”  as opposed to her show attire pictured below … i.e. a Target zip-up hoodie with sequins and Jeggings…. yeh….

I find it ironic how quickly we went from thinking this would be a temporary little diversion, to “We need to start saving for a horse.”

Now, onto educating ourselves as to what the heck she is doing exactly!

I admit I am totally loving being a part of her new found passion…. Does that make me a ‘Stable Mom?’