In the course of his youTube video watching over the last few months, he managed to come across one-time cooking show host Rachel Ray's human interest programme, particularly the episodes featuring animals. Now a favourite on his playlist, my son has shown me that one blind lady in the USA has not the usual seeing eye dog but a guide horse called Panda, a Shetland Pony.
On findining out that a Shetland pony would be part of the animal interaction opportunities at Pet Day, Little A was all the more excited.
Before meeting and greeting the other animals though, the schoolchildren got to play with some therapy dogs. Their trainer was a neighbour of ours, and Little A was familiar with her dogs, but I was pleased to see him feeding another dog a piece of carrot, a first for him in terms of animal interaction.
The pony was the last animal in the petting parade, and each child was encouraged to sit on its back for a photo. I had to correct the teachers whokept telling the children they could "ride" the animal by announcing to Little A that he would only sit on it for a few seconds, as riding meant going from point A to B on the horse's back, which was certainly not on the agenda.
My son had other ideas, naturally. After hanging back so he was the last pupil in his class to be photographed astride the pony, he mounted it again by himself and gently tapped the horse's sides with his heels to try and move it forward. The pony complied, but I quickly said that it wasn't allowed and that had to hop off quickly, which he did. Promises of properly going riding soon satisfied him, but come dismissal time he raced back to the playground to see his new friend only to find it had gone. Perhaps he will see it again next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment