Horse Riding competition and Prom

The school term ended with a Horse Riding competition. This is a big deal in our family. Not just because the Kids go horse riding twice a week and really want to do well but because of what has happened in the past horse riding events - basically disasters, with the horses refusing to jump (possibly because the horses were not used to being in a new environment with so many other people and horses, but it could also have been because the trainers were not helping prepare the horses on site very well with warm-up and course run-through).

In preparation for this we had changed to a different stables with different horses. This time, despite the fact the kids were entered in the beginner category by mistake, the event was more successful. For Leah, she was fine with both her runs, which was great. For Hannah, something happened in the warm-up and she was thrown off the horse, but was keen to continue. In her first run, the horse didn't want to jump, but eventually did, and the first run was eventually quite successful. In the second run, everything started well but then the horse veered off and did the wrong jump (there were two jumps close to each other).

Anyway, there was not as much tears as previous years, and actually Hannah, Leah and their 2 friends (who were in a team of 4 and of which the best 3 counted) won the competition, which was great. Hannah had had a bad hip for a month or so before the horse riding and had not done much riding or exercise in general (and surely falling did not help) so she did really well considering. 

We were very relieved, after the previous disasters!

And if the stress of the horse riding competition was not enough, as Hannah was finishing Primary School, she had an end-of-term Dinner (aka Prom). The choice of dress and shoes had become an ongoing conversation for about 2 months but eventually everything was sorted out. The event itself was not so stressful - at this age there wasn't any of the boyfriend-girlfriend's thing thankfully, so Hannah was just going with her other girls. 

 

There were lots of photos and I think that after all the planning and anticipation it was a little bit disappointing for the kids, but they went and that was that. 

 

However, before the prom, there was an end-of-year assembly; and partly because some of the kids were leaving Kenya or moving to other schools in Kenya; and partly because it was the end of Primary Schools, there was a lot of tears in the assembly. It may not have helped that the whole assembly performance and songs seemed to be designed to bring out the emotions. Anyway, it is all part of growing up I suppose!