The Junior Horsemanship Clinic or JHC was a blast. Everyone liked Hamster as much as they liked Punky when he used to come with me. My instructor was a woman named Ann. She used to go to high school with my mom. I know, small world. Ann really understood Hamster. She thinks that he has a lot of potential, but I have to gently coax it out. I can’t force it. Which of course is fine with me because I’ve realized that if I try and force him to do something he isn’t going to like it and he’ll not like me as much as if I convinced him that it’s the right choice. It’s the same way with people, as the old saying goes you can force a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I guess that is what they mean by partnership.

At camp it was the best of times and never the worst of times. Camp was fun because I had a new horse. New horses unlike cars never have that new horse smell. Their stalls sure smell . . . bad. Hammie didn’t bat an eyelash being in a new place. He settled right in. My barn manager, Emma was helpful and very nice. Jess, the head barn manager helped out too.

In the morning I worked with Ann.  In the afternoon, though, I worked with the other instructors. On one day that I worked with Sam on cross country, Hamster went into the water fine but did not want to come out. He wanted to stay and splash around.  The next day it was with Olivia working on rider Pilates. Hamster really loved the part where I had to scratch under his tail. Also, I worked with Mike on stadium jumping, Hamster was cool about the whole jump thing; he just didn’t care for some of the more unusual standards. The last person I worked with was Corinne on dressage, Hamster loved dressage, and he did not want to stop. At the end of the week we did we had a show and everyone thought Hammie had improved a lot. All in all, camp was fun and Hammie was easy to work with. I didn’t know what to expect but it turned out better than I could have hoped for. I only had one moment when he was a bit difficult with the bit and then he was fine.

You all know I have a new job working for the equestrian program at Mountain Top Inn and Resort. Mainly I do trail rides with their guests and lead pony rides for little kids. Mostly I am the “wrangler” which is the person that wrangles wayward customers! Only kidding. Sometimes I have to switch horses that want to act up and give the customer a horse that behaves better while on the trail. I had to tell one man who looped his reins around the saddle horn to not do that while he took photos. Okay, he said, put the camera away and proceeded to use his iphone and then went back to his camera. I even had a five year whose father gave him a tip to give to me, come up to me, show me the tip and proceed to put it in his pocket! It can get busy. I did three two hour trail rides one day and then ten fifteen minute pony rides only to come home and ride! My parents tell me that this is what customer service is all about! It is fun, though and I enjoy working with the horses.

Stay posted and I’ll update you on Hamster’s progress and how work is going.

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