Crash Test Training!

Disclaimer: No children or animals were in any way hurt or put at risk during the production of this blog. Although I may now have a few more grey hairs!

Not long ago it was my son John’s third birthday, and for his birthday my parents bought him a lovely little bicycle. I keep his bicycle on the stable yard, along with a selection of other toys, and every day when I do the mucking out, John comes onto the yard to play with his toys in the fresh air.

Now although John loves his bicycle very much, we haven’t had an awful lot of success with teaching him to ride it. He knows how to pedal and to steer, but up until today would only do it if he was being pushed lightly from behind. It seemed that he was very unwilling to get cycling under his own steam.

Now today is ‘big muck out’ day when I completely turn the beds and add new bedding. Having recently been diagnosed with SPD, I was very conscious of protecting my SI joint and lower back area from too much strain. As I was concentrating a bit harder than usual on what I was doing, I wasn’t paying much attention to John, until he suddenly appeared in the stable behind me. “It’s alright Mummy.” he said, “Faith isn’t scared of bicycles, she’s a really good girl.”

I walked down the yard to the big double field gates, and there was Faith poking her nose through the bars of the gate and giving John’s little bicycle a thorough inspection. I clicked ad treated her and gave her a big fuss, and continued to click and treat her as she sniffed and nuzzled the bicycle all over.

I then wheeled the bike away to the other end of the yard, and encouraged John to get on. He hopped on and I gave him a little push, and he was away! “Wheeeeee!” He said, pedalling like fury. “Look at me Mummy, I’m going really fast!” Well this was a first. I watched open mouthed as John whizzed down the yard, and banked right, towards the field gate. I ran after him, knowing that he hadn’t yet discovered the brakes, and turned the corner just in time to see him crash straight into the gates, right between Faith’s front legs, giggling helplessly.

Well that little filly didn’t even flinch. She did however take the opportunity to give the top of John’s head a thorough exploration with her nose. Neither of them were hurt, as Faith was protected by the gates, and John had managed to stay seated on his bicycle. Once again I clicked and reinforced Faith loads and loads, and gave her a big fuss.

Once again I wheeled the bicycle to the other end of the yard, and the whole process began again. Three times John crashed into the gates directly in front of Faith’s chest, and three times Faith just stood like a rock, and waited to be clicked and treated. John thought this was hilarious, and Faith realised that she was onto a good thing too. Tommy then came over to see what all the hilarity was about, and the next time John came whizzing around the corner, it was Tommy standing at the gates waiting for the crash!

So for the next ten minutes or so, Tommy and Faith took it in turns to stand at the field gate, while my small son pedalled straight at them at speed, and each time they got clicked and reinforced for standing there calmly! Both the horses could have wandered off to graze at any point, but they were clearly finding John’s antics far too interesting. Anyway, as amusing as this all was, it wasn’t getting the mucking out done. So John and I had a serious chat about steering.

So I set John off down the yard again, and this time he banked left instead of right, and went straing into the tack room. “Wheeeeeee” said John, Boooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg went my metal feed bin as John pedalled into it at speed. The horses wandered off to graze as I picked my giggling son up off the floor.