Tag: horses

BOOK REVIEW: Come Running When I Call by Kimberly Sue McGlaughlin

by Karen, posted in author, book reviews, books, writing

I met the author, Kim, when I first started going come runningto the Community Market of the Kennebunks on Saturdays.

I just finished reading her book, Come Running When I Call, a memoir about a girl and her horse.

You know, the horse.

But don’t think you have to be a girl who loves horses to enjoy this book–although if you are, you certainly will!

Anyone who loves reading memoir will enjoy this story of how Kim learns about herself and her own strength and limits as she learns to love and care for her horse, Trixie.

One fascinating part for me was when Kim describes her tenth birthday, from what she wore to what she ate to what was said that day. So impressive! I have a photo of myself on my tenth birthday, but only because I had a party with friends invited, a very unusual occurrence in my family. Even though I have the photo somewhere, I still can’t remember what the heck I was wearing that day…

The author also describes the difficult years growing up with a father who possessed a big, unpredictable temper. Many of us can relate to living in a home where you feel like you are walking on eggshells much of the time.

What is great about this story is that it shows how even a little girl with no money can set an intention for what she wants, and then the universe starts conspiring to deliver it to her. Like the little boy who wants a bike in the movie, The Secret, what she needs starts showing up. She finds people to teach her how to take care of her horse. She finds ways to earn the money that she needs to buy her horse.

Amazing.

Enjoy the story!

If you are local, you can come to The Community Market of the Kennebunks most Saturdays to buy your copy and get it signed by the author! Or click on the name of the book (above) to find it on Amazon.com.

If you come to the market and want another great book to read, stop by my table to take a look at One Brave Thing!

As an aside, if you are not familiar with the movie, The Secret, here’s a link to watch it for free:

Secretariat

by Karen, posted in family, local fun, movies, tweens

I took my daughter to see this movie with a bit of trepidation.

Secretariat

First of all, it is 2 hours and 3 minutes long, a very long time for a tween to sit still and remain engaged, especially in the uncomfy old theater seats.

Second, although it is a Disney movie, it isn’t a kids’ movie per se, so this is the first sort of adult drama that I’d taken her to see.

Why was I willing to take the risk? Well, it’s about horses, and my daughter loves horses, so that made it seem like more of a calculated risk.  After purchasing the requisite order of nachos that my daughter needs to maximize her movie-watching experience, we entered the theater and settled in.

Fortunately, the movie was great. It already had the presence of Diane Lane going for it, but all of the other actors were also well cast. Like a good book, it pulled us in right from the first moments of the film and kept our interest until the end.

If only they had given out little plastic horsies as favors; then our day would have been complete. 🙂

Girls’ Night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, friends, local fun, restaurants, tweens

On the (rare) days when the male members of the family are off at work, but the females have the day off, we have a Girls’ Night. Today, Girls’ Nights started early, at 7:24AM. The men were out for the day so the females were left to  our own pursuits. This is what my daughter and I did today:

  1. Breakfast: Cream of wheat for Izzy and egg white omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and roasted red peppers for me. OJ and coffee, respectively.
  2. Met up with friends at Cafe Perfecto in Kennebunk. We split a gingerbread muffin. We ate it too quickly to photograph it. It was goooooooooooooooooooooooooood. 🙂
  3. Next, browsing at Kennebooks. We bought some cards, some books, and a really cool mushroom shaped eraser with the sharpener built right in. 

    Coolest mushroom eraser/sharpener ever!
  4. Home for lunch: PB&H on homemade bread for me; grilled cheese and bacon on whole wheat bread for Iz. Then she caught up with a friend on the phone, while I caught up on the laundry, chicken tasks, and dishes. Yay.
  5. Next, North Berwick Farmers Market. My friend Rebecca was there so we got to visit a bit. Lucky for us, it was the day of their Pie Contest, and we got to try a piece of the winning pie, baked by a 9 year old girl; very impressive. Besides pie, we got some fudge, some granola, herbs to mix with oil for bread-dipping, oatmeal coconut cookies…hmmm, seems like something is missing. What is it? Oh! The (token healthy food that was the excuse for going to the farmers market) apple! I ate that at the next stop.
  6. Izzy had a riding lesson and I spent the time in the car catching up on the last 2 days of newspapers that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
  7. At 6Pm, lesson over, we headed to Johnson’s Seafood and Steak. This is our new favorite restaurant, partly because it’s right on the way home after riding, but mostly because of the pumpkin cheesecake. OMG. It’s worth going just for that.
  8. Finally, home for a movie night. We watched The Clique. Izzy had seen it before and wanted to watch it again with me. Great mother-daughter movie.

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That’s it.  She’s gone to bed; I’m getting ready to. We had a great day. 🙂

Rule #1

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, no fear, tweens

my daughter fell off her horse at her riding lesson last week. her instructor said something like, “is this your first time falling off a horse?” fortunately, her dad brought her to that lesson, not her mom, so there were no hysterics involved. when he asked her what happened, why she fell, she said, “I let go of the reins”.  which leads me to

Rule #1: always wear your helmet!

i understand that “first time” implies there are other times to come. i try not to worry too much about this. i try but i don’t succeed (hel-lo? remember Christopher Reeve?). i looked up some info online about horseback riding lesson: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-a-Child-Horse-Riding-Lessons

now that i know a little more about what i didn’t know about horseback riding, i feel like i can comment a bit on this topic.

  1. about wearing jeans: my daughter did just fine wearing jeans and then one day she finished her lesson with a complaint that her leg hurt. upon investigation, we found a large round blister on the inside of her shin just below the knee from the inseam of the jeans…prior to that day she had been wearing long johns under the jeans (it was COLD, riding outside in february!) but in the warmer weather she had adjust her riding wardrobe to prevent injury.
  2. another point made in the online article was to ask your child if she prefers private lessons or riding with another person. turns out, she prefers riding with others.
  3. it is a good idea to shop around. ask for referrals from friends whose children ride (or ride themselves) but be prepared to make up your own mind. just because someone speaks highly about a facility doesn’t mean it’s right for you or yours. also, prices for similar services can vary widely.

the bottom line was that she did get back on, which i understand is a sure sign that she  really does want to learn to ride a horse. 🙂

trust your instincts

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

well. my daughter has been riding at the new barn (http://home.comcast.net/~goodrich-puffer/index.html) for a while now, and loves it here. she is learning things like “posting”, “diagonals”, and “emergency dismounts”…oh my! more importantly, i am not experiencing that vague feeling of uneasiness that never left me at the other barn…the “i can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t seem quite right” feeling that mothers (and others) sometimes feel. i don’t feel like that at all when she is riding here. plus, this instructor taught her more in an hour than the prior one did in a month. this instruction makes the other look like…pony rides. expensive pony rides.

have any of you ever had a “gut feeling” about something that turned out to be true? did you follow your instinct right away, or wait awhile first?

when you don’t know what you don’t know

by Karen, posted in family

i signed my daughter up for horseback riding lessons at a local barn. i don’t ride and am not very familiar with horses so although i was confused about a few things i saw happening there, i chalked it up to my own ignorance and just kept bringing her back… but i also kept a close eye on her while she rode. after a few weeks i became concerned when, for the second week in a row, an experience rider was thrown from her horse during a lesson.  i grew even more concerned when the owner of the stable showed neither sympathy for the rider nor discernible worry about possible concussion and spinal cord damage to her disoriented, head injured student, and instead blamed the victim, calling it  “rider error”, and apparently dismissing the incident from her mind. meanwhile, the student sat in a chair in the barn, coatless and shivering (whether from shock or the 20 degree temperatures could not be determined), unable to drive herself home. 

in the spirit of  “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”,  here is a safety link: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00058

what would you have done if you witnessed a similar situation?