Today was the last day of Danielle's horse camp. Danielle had a great time and really enjoyed everything she got to do. Unfortunately today didn't end well, though.
The entire week the instructors told the girls they would get to show their parents what they learned and would even get to ride for us on the last day. Danielle was super excited about showing us what she learned and talked about it all week. Ron rearranged his schedule and cancelled a couple meetings to be sure he could make it because it meant so much to Danielle. Then, yesterday after class, they told us we would only be able to come for a few minutes at the very end of class and take a picture of our child sitting on a horse - not riding or leading it or anything else. Just sitting on it.
Danielle was SO disappointed. I mean crying disappointed. So we tried to contact the farm or even Girl Scouts to make arrangements to come a few minutes early to watch her ride. We tried to do this because the GS made it clear in their camp information guide that parents are not permitted to stay to observe their child at any camp. No one had the farm's phone number, including the Girl Scouts who organized this camp. All the listed numbers for the farm had been disconnected. Try as we might, we just couldn't reach anyone. So, this morning I asked the instructor (who might be 18) what time Danielle would be riding and explained that Ron had already rearranged his schedule to be there to watch her ride. She told me and didn't seem to have a problem with us coming early.
When we got there, the gate to the parking lot was closed. (We opened it.) When we finally got back to the stables, the owner was in with Danielle's group and refused to let us watch. He was very rude and quite unreasonable, and finally told Ron that he was causing the girls to miss out on their instruction time. Ron is very even tempered and rarely gets mad, but he was MAD! I loved Tyler's unprompted comment afterward, "Wow! If I had talked to Dad like that I'd be in my room waiting for a spanking!"
Honestly, we didn't care so much about whether or not we got to watch Danielle, but we knew how important it was to her. We left to sit in our car until the designated time when we could photograph Danielle sitting on a horse (which we could do for about $4 - considerably less - at our zoo). While we were sitting there, we watched Danielle come out and could tell that she was crying. It was so frustrating.
Later, after the girls took turns getting their pictures taken, we noticed another girl had her head buried in her mom's side and was sobbing because she thought she was going to get to show her mom and grandparents what she had learned. It was such a sour way to end the week. There were other issues we had with Girl Scouts themselves beforehand, and I was disappointed with some of the misuse of time during this camp, but Danielle wasn't aware of any of that and was having a great time. Sadly, I feel like today cast a shadow on all that.
Despite our ending, Danielle confirmed her love of horses this week and became a lot more confident around them. She's positive she wants to do a full day week long camp next year and is hoping to get some money for her birthday to take a lesson that we can watch. Of course, we'll go some place else for those things! I will share some pictures from today in another post.
The entire week the instructors told the girls they would get to show their parents what they learned and would even get to ride for us on the last day. Danielle was super excited about showing us what she learned and talked about it all week. Ron rearranged his schedule and cancelled a couple meetings to be sure he could make it because it meant so much to Danielle. Then, yesterday after class, they told us we would only be able to come for a few minutes at the very end of class and take a picture of our child sitting on a horse - not riding or leading it or anything else. Just sitting on it.
Danielle was SO disappointed. I mean crying disappointed. So we tried to contact the farm or even Girl Scouts to make arrangements to come a few minutes early to watch her ride. We tried to do this because the GS made it clear in their camp information guide that parents are not permitted to stay to observe their child at any camp. No one had the farm's phone number, including the Girl Scouts who organized this camp. All the listed numbers for the farm had been disconnected. Try as we might, we just couldn't reach anyone. So, this morning I asked the instructor (who might be 18) what time Danielle would be riding and explained that Ron had already rearranged his schedule to be there to watch her ride. She told me and didn't seem to have a problem with us coming early.
When we got there, the gate to the parking lot was closed. (We opened it.) When we finally got back to the stables, the owner was in with Danielle's group and refused to let us watch. He was very rude and quite unreasonable, and finally told Ron that he was causing the girls to miss out on their instruction time. Ron is very even tempered and rarely gets mad, but he was MAD! I loved Tyler's unprompted comment afterward, "Wow! If I had talked to Dad like that I'd be in my room waiting for a spanking!"
Honestly, we didn't care so much about whether or not we got to watch Danielle, but we knew how important it was to her. We left to sit in our car until the designated time when we could photograph Danielle sitting on a horse (which we could do for about $4 - considerably less - at our zoo). While we were sitting there, we watched Danielle come out and could tell that she was crying. It was so frustrating.
Later, after the girls took turns getting their pictures taken, we noticed another girl had her head buried in her mom's side and was sobbing because she thought she was going to get to show her mom and grandparents what she had learned. It was such a sour way to end the week. There were other issues we had with Girl Scouts themselves beforehand, and I was disappointed with some of the misuse of time during this camp, but Danielle wasn't aware of any of that and was having a great time. Sadly, I feel like today cast a shadow on all that.
Despite our ending, Danielle confirmed her love of horses this week and became a lot more confident around them. She's positive she wants to do a full day week long camp next year and is hoping to get some money for her birthday to take a lesson that we can watch. Of course, we'll go some place else for those things! I will share some pictures from today in another post.
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