Now Zion is my mom's horse. He is in Chicago for the summer to get some training under his belt. Zion was born at my parents farm- he is my mother's 4th child. You know the little boy favorite? To give more of an idea of the bond mom and Zion have, my mom called me more times last week and the week before worrying about Zion than she did when I went away to college, or when I lived in Greece for 4 months. Love you Mom! In all seriousness, they have a cute bond. Mom has her own barn, and her own outdoor arena behind the house. I think the only person she has ever ridden with is me, or one of the neighbors. Mom and Dad were planning to come to Chicago, so I told mom, she should take the lesson from Ryan. Wednesday, I get a phone call. Very serious mom, trying to argue that it will be better for Zion if I ride him in the lesson. Now, I am not an expert, but I don't need help with Zion from Ryan just yet... so I tried to explain to my mom. She wasn't buying it. We had the same conversation on Thursday. Then on Saturday, once she actually got here, she agreed to ride Zion with my help. Things went well. We worked on her hands, and controlling his tempo. She did an excellent job, once we had a few laughs about how hands are not supposed to post with you.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday... We were at the barn by about 8:30am, lessons were happening, with some of the ladies at the barn. I thought it would be good for my mom to see then ride. She was NERVOUS! Pacing around, trying to come up with a last ditch effort on why she thought she wasn't worth a lesson from Ryan... As the lesson time approached, with soem coaxing from dad and MaryLou she went and got Zion and started tacking him up. She agreed that if Ryan got on him first, so she could watch she would get on once he was finished.
I walked around with her, in what Papa Leon referred to as being a protective mother hen. It was time for her to get on... Ryan was a great teacher to her- not that I am surprised, and my mom made me very proud. She rode like a champ! She listened, asked questions and even made a couple of jokes...
I didn't think they would canter- and once she started she didn't want to stop. I thought she would panic once the two other ladies entered the arena, but she just dug in and kept riding. So to my mother- I hope you had a wonderful mother's day, and I want you to know how very proud of you I am! You have done a great job with Zion and it is about time that you started getting lessons! I look forward to watching your lessons this summer.
For your enjoyment I present Paulette Kotlarz and her first lesson with Ryan Yap, on her "home grown" 2004 Dutch Warmblood gelding out of Olivia (E'Sops Fable) and by Pallas (Darwin) - "Zion":
No comments:
Post a Comment