It has been over 20 years since I’ve been to a horse show. Last weekend, my daughter, Jenny rode and placed second in Glendale Riding School’s Autumn Show. It was a combined test of dressage, cross country, and jumping. Dressage is described as the highest expression of horse training where horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements. Cross country is an endurance test of speed and jumping ability which demonstrates the rider’s knowledge of pace.
During the show jumping part of the competition, horse and rider are required to jump a series of obstacles. The weather was perfect and the riders were regal sitting atop their magnificent steeds. There is something so classy and formal about a horse competition. Riders in jodhpurs and tall boots, performance coats and blouses, crops and black helmets. Little girls with braids and ribbons and women with tight buns.
Glendale Farm is a beautiful family owned riding school on Matthewstown Road in Easton. Molly Foster has been Jenny’s riding instructor for over 30 years. When we moved to Cambridge, the internet didn’t exist so I asked friends for advice on the best riding instructor, everyone recommended Molly. We’ve all heard that “it takes a village to raise our children”, Glendale Riding School is that “village”. Children take lessons at GRS because of the romance of horses, and as a bonus, they learn about rules, respect, kindness, and responsibility.
Jenny rode a horse for the first time when she was 4 years old, while living in Hawaii. We went on a trail ride on the steep hills north of Pearl Harbor, her feet didn’t even reach the stirrups but she was determined and fearless.
We would go on trail rides at NAS Barber’s Point, which was on the (western) leeward side of Oahu. There was always the threat of a wild boar attack so we stayed very alert while riding. One of our favorite trail rides was on the beach at the Turtle Bay Resort, riding barefooted.
Jenny has made horses her career, she has worked on farms all over the Eastern Shore and Florida. She now teaches at Glendale Riding School and one of her students is her 5 year old niece, Winnie. Winnie is following in her Aunt Jenny’s footsteps, she loves horses. Winnie is wearing Jenny’s first pair of riding boots to her lessons. I’m really looking forward to Winnie’s journey at GRS with the Tidewater Pony Club.
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