My mom turned 70 the end of November. She's still an avid horsewoman and an active rider and driver. I've had Pixie at the indoor arena since Thanksgiving weekend and she is now nicely going. 6-weeks green but solid thanks to Heather's training (I'm getting too old to bounce! plus I needed a break from riding after the intense summer).

I asked my mommy if she wanted to ride her pony before I sell it or ship it to the H/J sales barn as soon as a pony stall frees up. So she came down on Sunday and RODE her pony. I rode Pixie first to show off her paces and then my mom got on. Mother hasn't ridden since the middle of Sept but she is fit from looking after 13 horses with minimal assistance from my dad. I think if we ever took the horses away, my mom would wither and die - they are her life and her love.

Well needless to say she was thrilled! She did all the initial backing as Pixie is used to being shown In-Hand by me and wouldn't walk on with me on board. Plus mother weighs about 30lbs less than me. But after 2 summers of a week solid at most, the ponies weren't getting broke and sold. So into the indoor for the winter and see how many I can get solidly going and potentially sold.

At one point while my mom was riding a drop of condensation hit Pixie in the nose and she started sideways, mother yelled WHOA and Pixie planted - almost unseating my mom with the immediate stop. We love having solid brakes on all our equines as you never know when you need to use that magic word in cases of emergency.

My mom's biggest complaint - "It won't go. I can't use light leg commands and have her move off." Well I explained she's only been under saddle for 6 weeks plus if I soup her up too much for our liking she would be too sensitive for most junior riders. She will get souped up a bit in the next couple of weeks but not "think-and-do-sensitive".

I think Pixie enjoyed having my mom down as well. She's been rather sucky to me recently, so maybe she misses the people normally in her life.