I think little girls liking horses has become less common only as little girls have been deluged with Disney Princess paraphernalia. And make no mistake, the Disney Princess love is strong in the hearts of Jane’s daughters.
Last Saturday I got Dick to help me with our church kids activity. Chrysanthemum helped us pitch a big tent in the primary room, and Dick dressed up as King Benjamin (a Book of Mormon prophet-king like Solomon in the Old Testament). We joked that I was “Queen Benjamin” in my Egyptian gallabeya, and Susan wanted to be a Nephite Princess. In her squeaky, excited voice she confided: “I’m going to be Sleeping Beauty Nephite Princess.”
And Spot helicopter-parents her Jasmine and Snow White dolls (apparently she suspects that Rachel down the street harbors Disney-figurine kleptomania).
But Sally has fallen in love with horses. She draws horses whenever she’s not reading about them, and begs to ride the ponies at Farm Country. She has decorated every inch of her room with equine art, printed off the internet and colored or traced from her special “How to Draw Horses” book.
I almost hope she’ll move on to unrequited boy crushes before Dick has to sell a kidney and build a corral in the backyard.
Jane
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One of the guys I used to work with has been telling me for years (even well before M was a twinkle in my eyes!) to never let any daughter of mine read the Saddle Club books. Because I will then be sentencing our family to a lifetime of pony-wishing, or if we give in to said wish, then poverty from maintaining a horse on famr adjistment or whatever you do when you don’t even have a yard big enough for a tea cup poodle.
I think I’d even rather have M play with Bratz dolls then get into horses (I can deal with Barbie, but abhor Bratz).
This is sweet! I absolutely loved horses while I was growing up. I remember drawing and tracing pictures of them often and putting calendar pages of them on my walls. In fact, I think that I still had some up when I graduated from High School. I also had quite a few friends who had impressive horse figurine collections, Horses still have a special place in my heart and I love to go riding any time I get the chance–no, I’m not good at it.
It’s funny that you mention little girlies and their Disney Princess fettishes. My girls are already SO into it and they’re only 3 & 4. It’s funny how much the times have changes–which we have commercialism to thank for. I personally don’t have any memory of being all that in to Disney princesses. I know I enjoyed watching the movies, (especially as new ones came out) and dressed up as generic princesses for Halloween.
In response to Kristy’s comment, my mother never let us have Barbie’s while growing up. I did enjoy playing with them at friends houses though. I too find myself shying away from Barbie with my little girls, mostly because they always seem to be naked. But you also have the issue of an unattainable body image and the obsession with accessorizing and the need for a bazillion clothes, not to forget the little shoes to seem to be just the perfect size for swallowing and sticking up noses.
Oh,I SO hear you on this one. My oldest daughter LOVES horses and has since she was old enough to say “horse”. We tried enrolling her in lessons, sending her to horse camp in the summer, etc, but gosh – it is just amazingly expensive. We’ve encouraged her on to other interests that are more possible to afford.
There definitely is something primal about that love between young girls and horses though!
Those Bratz dolls are the very devil. D-E-V-I-L.
We didn’t have Barbies when I was a kid either. How I loved playing with my friends’ Barbies. At least we got Cabbage Patch! I still remember the birthday that my sister and I (mine was in June, hers in July) got Cabbage Patch dolls and a keyboard to share.
Yes, Barbies always seem to be naked, but the funny thing is that my mom (the anti-Barbie, remember?) has bought Barbies and Barbie clothes for my daughters at thrift stores — and then she sews the clothes so they’re both easy to get on (lots of velcro) and modest. It’s awesome.
The whole body image thing bothers me, as I am a “comfortable” size 14 right now, but I’m not worried too much. My kids spend half their time being kitties/ponies/dinosaurs anyway, so who knows WHAT kind of self-image they’ll end up with? I mean, who could compete with a gazelle in terms of gracefulness?
I wanted to add that Dick took the equestrian class at college. It had a high fee (200 I think, 10 years ago). It never occurred to me to spend that sort of money on horses, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m cheap or because I simply wasn’t as interested in them as he was. But maybe Sally comes by her love by more than just girlish means.
My mom loved horses when she was little, so I got all of her childhood stuff as a kid, and to say the least I wasn’t into it (I think only one horse survived the peanut-butter-on-horse-feed-the-poor-dogs Day). And I really wasn’t appreciative of her signing my girl scout troop up for mucking stalls and cleaning horse hooves (which is something horse borders usually are thrilled to have kids do for free), but the other day my mom, Goose and I sat down to watch National Velvet. Seeing Goose get excited about horses was actually pretty exciting, since I’ve been holding my breath hoping she won’t catch the HSM/JonasBrothers/Hannah Montana bug that is running rampant in her PRESCHOOL!
LOL, too cute! One thing I must say is that unlike barbies, cabbage patch, etc, horses are quite often a passions that sticks. I have known a few girls with that kind of passion for horses (pictures everywhere, floor to ceiling covered) and it has followed them throughout life. After all, are the walls of your other girls covered in pictures of barbie or princesses? (maybe they are) Anyway, I don’t know where I’m going with this but I think it’s cute! Oh, and I replied to your comments on my post. I want to try to start having conversations through my comments like you do! ( Me be like Jane…)
Um, after your pictures of the massacre a few weeks back, I think I would be nervous about what would happen with a real horse. I think horses wouldn’t like their fur sheered off.
On another note, we were once driving around with a realtor while considering a job. She kept driving us around these really expensive houses and equestrian clubs then said, “Oh, right, you don’t do horses yet.” First taste on how people looked at doctor’s wives. We took the job, but used a different (more down to earth) realtor. My husband and I still laughingly repeat her comment when we drive by the snooty neighborhoods.
DH is praying our Callie gets into horses. He would love to have an excuse to move to the country and have a herd of dogs to run around with.
As far as the princess thing goes, I am not against them, I just realize it is likely she will be brainwashed by the Disney machine soon enough, so thus far, I have been avoiding them.
I actually don’t mind Hannah Montana. I’ve watched several episodes with the kids, and found them to be mildly entertaining, and not offensive. And her singing is catchy. The Jonas brothers are different, because I really would like to put off the day that my girls discover boys for as long as possible, though I will say that the one Jonas boy is really cute. (I mean that in a maternal “oh how cute” sort of way. Really.)
Doctor’s wives/doctor’s daughters — When we moved to Salina, Utah, my dad was the only doctor for miles, and I was always bummed that I have the least cool clothes and had to wear moon boots and walk 5 miles to school. (Maybe it was only 1 1/2 miles). Kids at school were a bit weird till they realized that my mom didn’t buy me designer jeans (meanie!).
My good friend Melinda’s family always had horses. They weren’t rich at all, but they had land, and it was just part of their lifestyle. I think that’s a heap different than the whole horse-dabbling rich-kid thing. (And in that case, of course you’d want your kids interested in horses rather than, say, video games or something.)
I was obsessed with horses as a kid. Here is how my dad fixed it:
He told me I could have a horse, but first I needed to go to “horse camp” to make sure I was certain. He then found a week-long sleep away camp that had a ratio of two hours of riding to every seven days of poop cleaning.
My daughter went through a horse phase from about age 4-10! We swore she would NEVER give up horses & horse dreams. We almost bought a farm just so we could get horses for the girl. She took riding lessons, competed in something-or-other, took barrel racing lessons.
Then she turned into a tween & other things caught her eye.
But your picture reminded me SO much of my girl. She drew pictures of horses always, everywhere, all the time. She was VERY good at drawing horses!
I do think the horse thing is different when you live on the land. My Mum and her sisters now HATE horses (or at least, don’t romanticise them)after growing up on sheep and cattle stations (= ranches). I romanticised them a bit, until I tried to rise one that almost kicked me off at my grandparet’s one time. And by the time I was a kid and spending my school holidays on the stations, my Uncle was using his motorbike for mustering, rather than horses, so there weren’t really any to ride. But, my Grandad did teach me to drive at 11 … that mightn’t have happened if there had been more horses around!
I just found your blog through Segullah (I’m the new Sampler editor). Great stuff! Plus, I am madly in love with Mountain Dew!!!!
My oldest was a horse lover. She started riding lessons at age 7 and quit at age 10. When she quit I was so apologetic to her teacher, but her teacher just said, “they all quit at that age.” She would know!
So indulge the horse thing. It will end eventually. If not, start saving up for that $80,000 horse!