Pony Tales THE GRANDAUGHTER CHRONICLES
P O N Y
T A L E S
in the morning to be sure we get front row seats. For us that means it is usually on the grass ringside at whatever show we can get to. My granddaughter starts early in the morning and helps pack the car with everything we may need, from umbrellas to a cooler for sodas we stop and buy at 7-11. Every one of these classes we have a chance to get to
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she hurries, she does not want to miss one minute of watching her idols walk the course. She hangs across the rail and tries to think like the riders do. She counts their every step between the jumps just as they do. She exam- ines the water jump and devises her own system of how she will approach it when she gets to that level. Her cur- rent level of expertise is the 2’ jumps in a group lesson but in her mind’s eye, she is riding these big courses with the rest of them. She is becoming a familiar face around the ring and
has been fortunate to talk with a few of the Grand Prix riders during autograph signing after a class. She remem- bers their names, their horses, their owners and can ramble off any horse’s stats on a moment’s notice. At a recent show in San
Juan Capistrano she had us properly seated on the grass at the proper time, thirty minutes before the Grand Prix started. She placed her- self on the rail, leaning over it in the hopes of simply catching the eye of a rider and get a courtesy smile. She felt her day would be com- plete if one waved at her. Will Simpson was walk-
ing the course and noticed the child. He waved and I thought her heart would stop; he has been one of her favorites for some time. Then the unexpected, he walked over to the rail and started a conversation, directly asking her what jump she thought he needed to pay attention to. After a moments stunned silence she started a dialogue about the vertical leading into an eight stride line to the water. She said it would
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is our usual practice, when a Grand Prix is in town we are on the road early
be better if he didn’t run like some do. Michelle Spadone joined Will in the conversation and right after that so did Eduardo Menezes and the athletes exchanged opinions and strategy while the child just listened. Pretty soon Will chuckled, shook her hand and went on
about the course walk. Michelle smiled and said it would be nice to see her on the field someday and Eduardo invited her to come visit his horses. As far as she was concerned her day was complete and the actual class was now only going to take second place. She has talked about those riders nonstop since that
day. She will remember something one of them said and replay it a zillion times. Amazing how just a few short minutes for an athlete has the ability to change the life of a child…they unknowingly make her feel extremely important to someone other than me. THAT is what idols really are in our sport….an athlete
that remembers and recognizes how important this sport is in the life of a child…and is willing to take a precious moment of their time and make it a precious mentor mo- ment in life of a child.
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