Poor Oscar - but it wasn't too long before he was feeling better
Again I seem to be talking about the school holidays but I guess it’s because they are always so....well......eventful shall I say.
Last school holidays didn’t start off so well so why should these ones. On the last day of school Oscar arrived home from three days away at the Great Aussie Bush Camp. When I saw him get off the bus he looked particularly GREEN! And was saying ‘Mum I just want to get home’. He had a shower and jumped straight into bed where he slept for a good 13 hours. I thought he was just so exhausted and a good sleep was all he needed.
WRONG!!! As soon as he woke up he was violently ill, and that continued all day. Poor Oscar was so sick he started to get dehydrated, so I took him to the hospital where they gave him something for the vomiting and put him on a drip. It was amazing how quickly it made him feel better. We came home that night and had half a night’s sleep and then it all started again! This went on for another 4 days, another trip to the hospital and then finally on day five he was starting to get hungry, a very good and relieving sign! Remarkably I didn’t catch this awful gastro bug nor did Charlie and not even Blair … Amazing!
Fun times with the cousins
Oscar was very keen to get out and about now that he was finally feeling like a human again and went and played with his cousins from Bright in Victoria who were staying with my parents for a week. They all had a great time together going on picnics, treading on snakes (by accident!), fighting over whose team they were on for the games they were playing and generally having fun.
Charlie on Philippa
After the cousins left a friend of mine said she had a couple of old stock horses that she could lend us for the boys to learn to ride on. ‘Philippa’ was an old polo pony who was supposed to be ‘really quiet’. Well the first day I got on her and she dropped her head and I found myself desperately trying to find the pummel of the saddle to hang on, great kids pony! To be fair she was fine after that but definitely not the ideal horse for a beginner. But Charlie was determined and was just so keen to ride that he insisted on riding Philippa. Every time you touch her mouth she just about does back flips and she doesn’t know how to trot because polo ponies only go walk and then straight into canter. So Charlie having never cantered before learnt in the first ten minutes to keep his hands incredibly still and soft otherwise Philippa would flip over backwards, and to sit very still with no bouncing because he was cantering within seconds! He did a great job I must say.
Charlie learns to keep his very still, very quickly
Oscar on the other hand is a little more cautious when it comes to riding and took one look at Philippa and said ‘Nup, I’m not getting on her’. Fair enough I thought! The same people had lent us another old mare that hadn’t played polo and is very much part of their family, which mean that unfortunately ‘Min’ has to go back shortly. Min would have to be the most fabulous beginners horse I have ever seen, Oscar has gone from barely wanting to get on a horse to cantering on his own in just one week, he LOVES it and more importantly he loves Min. I even caught some of the introduction to riding on video below.
Oscar looking pretty happy
We have had the most fantastic end to the school holidays with the boys riding every day, we even trucked the horses out to my parents property and went for a long ride through gullies and creeks, saw plenty of kangaroos, a wombat and another snake! We do have a few blisters, Charlie has Elastoplast around four fingers and Oscar is wearing gloves and my hockey shin pads to protect his leg rubs. The little grey pony that Charlie is riding in the photos is one Prue Barrett has lent us … ‘Rosie’ might be the perfect stepping stone before Philippa!
The family ride
Until next school holidays!!
Nikki
