The children came down yesterday morning early to see Bunny the new Dexter calf.
Later on when I was ready to go out and give Siera her daily currying and brushing, I asked if the 9 yr old daughter could come down. She has been expressing an interest...a Strong interest in our equines.
So after her math homework was done, our neighbor came down the driveway.
I had Siera already out. Siera is actually quite calm and easy to work around.
It was this girl's first time to actually curry and brush out an equine. She followed my instructions carefully and really concentrated on being safe around Siera.
UPS arrived and delivered my Veterinarian Quality Stethoscope, so we decided to listen to Siera's heart beat.
We went over the hoof, while Siera held it quietly in the young girl's hand, while I pointed out the frog, the heel bulbs, and parts of the bottom of the hoof.
Passing on the knowledge like this to a 9 year old who is absolutely madly in love with mules or horses is fun.
Next time we get together, we'll be exploring the importance of getting your equine's normal resting heart rate, as well as respiration, and body temp.
She wants to ride, but a child needs to understand the importance of the 'what' and 'why' around an equine before they just get tossed on a nice lesson animal and begin to ride.
Anyway that is my opinion.
And I'm stickin' to it.
Very sensible too! Riding should only ever be part of the lesson, til they've learnt to respect the equine from the ground they can't truly be taught mulemanship :-) Lovely to pass on that knowledge and what a good girl Siera is!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you! And I'm also stickin' to it.
ReplyDelete