Lightning Legs can also ride!

My weekends are often geared around various children's events and this past weekend was no exception. On Saturday morning around 8:30am, I was at Old Salem Farm in North Salem, NY to watch my youngest daughter Elizabeth compete in a hunter-jumper event on our larger pony Tango. Elizabeth rides a few times a week and recently has been taking lessons under the direction of nationally known trainer Kip Rosenthal from Benchmark Farms. Kip has been telling us how talented a rider Elizabeth is which is gratifying, but we were not sure if the praise was genuine or an attempt to get us to spend more money on lessons.

Well, on Saturday I think we got some clarity. In a class of mostly adults and teenagers, Elizabeth took 3rd place out of 25 contestants. Her posture was outstanding -- so much so that if the class had been judged on equitation, she most assuredly would have won. It was a fantastic ride.
On Sunday, it was time for Lizzie's soccer game. Elizabeth has the nickname "Lightning Legs" because she has blazing speed relative to her age group. As an example, she is faster than her 15 year old brother -- arguments between the two have on occassion deteriorated into Jack chasing her around the yard, and try as he might, he can't catch her. In soccer, she plays foward on the wing and uses her speed on the outside to her advantage. She has done this several times this season, scoring on the breakaway. Sunday was just such an occassion. The midfielder passed the ball up past half field and two defenders went running after the ball. Lizzie, who started much farther away, also pursued and made the two defenders appear to be in slow motion. They all arrived at the ball at the same time, but Lizzie was able to poke the ball ahead and then she just left the other girls in the dust. While dribbling the ball, she was still able to pull away from the other girls who were running as fast as they could to catch her. She was then one-on-one with the goalie and waited for her to commit and then fired into the open corner. GOOOOOOOAAAAALL!!
She is quite an athlete, regardless of the sport, she seems to excel. She makes my weekends fun.