Like Great Grandmother, like Mother like Daughter!

(I’m quite a bit behind with blogging – this is an attempt to start to catch up…!)

One Friday evening Martelize insisted on going to the stables and her wonderful uncle Hendrik obliged… much appreciated by her exhausted mother, who had just returned from work!  However, they soon returned!  Hendrik said that Martelize had been absolutely adamant that she wanted to ride.  “Op, op!”  And of course Hendrik could not let her ride all by himself!  Frans had not been keen on Martelize getting on a horse so young, but if it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood! 

All three my children had their first ride on a horse while still very small.  All three of them (years) later became competent endurance riders, but Thelwyn has always been the most horse crazy of the three.  She and her husband took over the Arabian stud from my mother – another horsemad horsewoman!  (About my mother’s horsiness, one could write a book: she started riding when she was 60, won the Fauresmith National Endurance Championship when she was 66, raised many, many horses, including two hand reared foals – the 2nd one when she was 91 years!)

Anyway, the next morning, Martelize had her first ride on Jessica.  

 

Waiting anxiously for Mamma to finish saddling Jessica.

Here we go!

 

Finally on the horse, but it’s a little bit scary!  The horse is very high!

It’s time for the horses to go grazing, but madam does not want to get off!  “Nog, Mamma!”

For safety sake, Thelwyn bought Martelize her first “crashy”.  Rule nr 1: no going to the stables without your crash helmet and your gumboots – and that goes for Mamma too!

 

A thank you kiss for Mamma. 

Afterwards, Martelize waits in Jessica’s food drum, while Thelwyn  takes care of the tack.

Hay for Jessica and the other horses too!  Martelize knows all of them by name! 

“Toemaak!” Martelize closes the gate.

“Klaar!”…. Till tomorrow, when we go riding again!