My Day At Work

Okay, so I "work" at a barn I also take lessons at. I don't really work because of the working laws in Cali, so I pay to work at the barn. During the summer, everyone takes on another shift and so everyone should have two eight hour shifts. Then when school comes along you only have one four hour shift either after school or a shift on the weekend.

This morning, I was already late because my sister had camp and we live half an hour away. I have to get up there at 7:30 and camp starts at nine. My mom didn't want to drive me up, wait an hour and then drive my sister up. Of course, I'd be late and get up there at 8:30 so my sister wouldn't have to wait too long and that'd make me and hour late. My mom and sister take their sweet time and we get up there at 8:40, almost 8:50. So I'm already freaking out because I'm the kind of person who hates getting in trouble and I wanted to cry because I love working there and I didn't want to get kicked out. Anyways, fast forward to after day camp comes (the camp my sister was in, you're there all day) and rec camp comes. Rec camp is for the kids who can't go to day camp, either too young or can't afford it. You're there for a few hours and you don't do much riding wise. The kids go and pick up poop and groom naked ponies (horses). We split the kids in half, one half goes on a trail ride the other half vaults. The staff member in charge of the vaulting and who's pretty much the boss of everyone, warms up the vaulting horse who's not an actual vaulting horse, but he's pretty good. I demonstrated the moves because I'm very, very, VERY qualified thanks to the four, one week camps where we vault for an hour out of the day. The vaulting moves were very simple: riding seat, kneel, half flag, flag, mill, around the world and backwards riding seat. And they were at the walk. As one of the campers is vaulting, I see the staff member's dog running down to the arena. She runs as fast as she can to all of the kids because she's a bad dog. The vaulting horse didn't freak out, thankfully, but the staff member wanted me to pick up her dog cause she was a tiny rat terrier. So she just jumped out of her owner's car (all of the windows were down and the car was parked in the shade, the dog was FINE), and ran down where she knew the people were.

After that, the second round of rec kids comes in and their grooming the horses and I overhear two boys talking. I thought I heard one of them say something about being a great rider despite being eight. Of course, my reaction was "Boi! You're eight! You're in rec camp!" But then I heard him say that he's only ridden four times and he didn't know all of the commands and everything. Then I was like "Wow. Kid, I genuinely applaud you!" The other kid said "I've been riding since I was three." Prepare for the caps lock... BOI! THREE YEAR OLDS DON'T HAVE THE NECK MUSCLE TO KEEP THEIR HEADS FROM BOBBLING WHEN THEY RIDE! YOU WERE PROBABLY JUST BEING LEAD AROUND ON SOME PONY! THAT'S NOT RIDING! ANYONE CAN SIT ON A PONY! Whew, mini rant over.

Skip ahead to the second rec camp. I took half of the kids on a scavenger hunt while the other half went on a trail. Some of the kids were siting on the railing, just talking, when the staff member told them to go brush some horses. I told them to go brush horses and the girl asked me why I was so bossy. I responded with "Because I'm the adult." I meant I was in charge, but of course I said adult. The boy said one day he'd be an adult and he'd be in charge of me. HAHA! Kid, I'm at least seven years older than you, when you're an adult, I will be an adult. Then he said I'd be a grandma by then. Yo! I'm not even gonna to be a MA if I keep meeting sassy kids like him, let alone a GRANDMA!

Let this be a lesson for me. Kids may be cute, but horses are cuter and you can hit a horse.

"and you can hit a horse." O_O

Ha, this brings flashback memories of the barn I rode at for...a decade?

Kids tend to one up one another, it's like they think that they need to add something impressive to the conversation in order to have a conversation. Add the general excitement and puppy-like energy...and kid herd mentality...it can be a lot LOL.

Hit a horse?!

I highly doubt she's implying beating a horse guys. It was a flippant statement, an attempt at a joke or sarcasm.

That said, in some horsemanship circles a smack on the rump or shoulder in certain situations with a particular horse can be an appropriate response (not saying this is the automatic go-to, usually it's a last resort escalation for a potentially harmful behavior like biting or getting ready to kick).

I dunno. Without any specific context, I'm hesitant to assume the worst case scenario.

What I mean by "hit a horse" is that if a horse is acting up, I can hit them. If a kid is acting, you can't hit them unless you want to mess them up.