Starting Small

The children have been exercising themselves and Little-legs today by building a make shift obstacle course.

This is to help Little-legs with his steering. He loved the mental challenge.

It is finally feeling like Summer and a little bit of pony P.E. seems wholly appropriate in this weather.

Little-legs is proving to be such a patient pony with our girls and I love the fact that they can just get on with working with him themselves. I always watch them, but I leave it to them. I only help them if they ask for it.

He is their project that they can work at together. Seeing Miss Friendship grinning away when she asked Little-legs to trot was lovely. She loved it as much as he did.

The audience were a bit bored though!

They were interested enough to stand close and watch…

…but a snooze was called for.

And when Little-legs had done his bit, which he did so well, it was their turn to play at being ponies.

Watching them, I found myself reflecting on our journey into carriage driving. I still feel that it is something we are very new to. We have still got L plates on but it is the people willing to come along and sit beside us for the ride that have made our journey so pleasant. We’re standing at one of those junctions with the reins in hand and looking back can say “Wow! We’ve learnt a lot” and then looking ahead can say “Wow! We’ve got so much to learn.” At this junction, I can see too how we have reached this place purely through the hard work and dedication of others who have taught us. We have met amazing people who seem willing to go the extra mile with us and that amazes and inspires me. Seeing the children grow in an unusual area of expertise and seeing them grow in confidence is very rewarding, especially at an age in life when having something unique to identify with is important to their sense of security and self-worth.

At this junction, I also find myself observing how character building the journey has been. There is an interesting friction between aspirations and reality. I like the fact that our eldest has great aspirations but has had to submit to travelling at a safe speed. He has not been able to do everything he would like to do, in the time scale he would choose, but has developed more character-filled muscle by being patient and going at a steadier pace. Aspirations drive us on and reality holds us back, but it makes us stronger and more able to endure in the long haul. We also have time to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

One of the best lessons has been “start small and work with what you have got.” Working with what you have develops a certain ingenuity and creativity. We’re working with our smallest and I can’t wait to see team Little-legs on the road.

Pocket-sized dog, pocket-sized pony and pocket-sized child