Do you know a single, solitary girl that doesn't love horses? That doesn't at some point ask her parents for a horse? That imagines a bond between herself and this 1,400 pound animal as the most magical ever created?
I haven't met a young girl yet that doesn't love horses or at least the idea of horses. Maybe it's freedom that a horse provides. Riding atop a giant beast alone in the wilderness. Or, maybe the safety that a horse would provide in such a free state. It could be that a horse is so in tune to what a rider wants and the resulting feeling of power that gives it's rider. And what about all those classic tales of a girl and her horse like Black Beauty and National Velvet?
I can't say for sure what it is between young girls and horses. But I can say that my girls were thrilled to have the chance to spend an entire week at horse camp. To be assigned a horse all their own. To lead it. To groom it. To saddle it. To ride it. To paint it. To wash it. . .
To bond with it.
To love it.
And now to miss it desperately.
Something tells me that Banjo and Justice will be a dinner time topic for discussion for months to come. And that the pleas and begging requests for horses all their own will not be ending any time soon.
-dana
17 comments:
Such a sweet and true post. Your girls were blessed to have that week and will treasure it always. I got my first horse at 9 and spent many years after showing and caring for them. Thank goodness, my Da had a strong love for them as well! :)
Deborah
What great shots - I never saw a true "painted pony" before! My sister is horsey, though I'm not. To torment my husband, when the girlchild was about 2 I taught her to say, "Daddy I want a pony!" It was one of her first sentences and I relished watching his astonishment!
forget, little girls! i'd be pretty keen on this NOW! love, love, love the eye.
I remember vividly the difference a horse made in my life... yet also do not quite know how to explain it. What a fabulous week it must have been!
Ah, I definitely understand this bond! Looks like a wonderful camp. :)
my oldest daughter loved horse camp. I think she was about 12 at the time. Aren't those horses lucky to receive all that love and attention.
Horse camp! We went through the horse stage, the riding lessons, all of it...but never had horse camp...DD would definitely have been there...I absolutely LOVE the looks on the girls' faces, and the painted eye! What a fantastic summer you are having...
what a fun thing to do!!! they look so happy and how fun to be able to paint the horse!
Horse camp is the best. I hope they always love this time spent with a horse. I do. We just returned from our own family "horse camp". camping with our own horses. I have two boys and they are not in total horsey love but enjoy it.
Reminds me of when my daughter was in the "horse loving stage"... lessons, Girl Scout horse camp etc... She still ( at 40) loves horses and wants a country place where she can have one. AND she's instilling the same horse crazy fever in her 9 year old niece!
Winston Churchill said it best: There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. To watch my husband work with horses is pure poetry in motion. Our daughter has been riding longer than she has been walking and yes, that bond is amazing. Your girls are blessed to have had this experience and yes, you'll be hearing about it for years to come! Love the photos!
Yeah, horses....sigh....I was a lucky girl to ask for and receive a pinto for my 9th birthday. Pancho. What a feisty devil he was, but oh so perfect in every way! I LOVE horses, always have, always will (even now at 44), I still dream of having a place with many, many horses of my own.
I'm glad your girls got to go to horse camp and experience that bond and love. :)
I wanted a horse when I was a kid. I read The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, The Silver Brumby, etc (and collected the rest of the books)
Then when I got to high school (age 12) I developed a friend who had horses. Well, I sorta went off them after that. They were big and scary! that got mum off the hook cos there was no way we could've afforded a horse. So I loved them from afar instead.
Boy, do I know it!
Love Horses!!! No bond in the world like it. They are so spiritual and honest in all ways. What a great experience for your girls.
Interesting, was having a conversation with my family the other day about horses and the qualities that make them so interesting and therapeutic to us humans. I also adored horses when I was young. Not sure I could ride anymore! Well, I could ride but the day after I would just have to be put out of my misery...
I would have KILLED to spend a week at horse camp at that age! It's hard to put that bond into words, but it stays with you long past adolescence. I live around the corner from the city stables and visit the carriage horses almost every day. There's just something about a horse...
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