Our Featured Adult Rider of the Month is Barb Mabe
Barb and Simba ready for Halloween
Barb is certainly well known around Lancers as she is such a character! Barb has been riding for more than twenty-five years and we have been fortunate to have Barb amongst us as a Lancer since 1997. While she has her own horse, named Alistair, at a different barn but continues to take lessons at Lancers because she finds the opportunity ride different horses improves her work with her own horse. Barb has been riding in the Friday morning adult ride for twenty years! According to Barb, the best part about Lancers is that we learn to do everything. “We don’t just come and ride”, she said, “we learn to care for the horses”.
On top of riding, Barb is well-known at Lancers as a Barn Monitor and a fill-in stablehand. All the children in the Junior Beginner courses love having her as their Barn Monitor! Barb is a talented artist and each year she spends many hours drawing and making Christmas ornaments of Lancer horses for our Silent Auction. The ornaments are always much sought after! Despite her great efforts at Christmas, Barb’s favourite holiday by far is Halloween (and everyone knows this)! She always dresses up for Halloween and even makes sure to wear very funky (and sometimes freaky) contact lenses. For some lucky Lancer horses, Barb has also been known to chalk in Halloween-themed pictures onto their coat. It seems that Barb likes to bring her passion for her other hobbies of sewing, drawing, and painting to Lancers. She also enjoys building a model castle, painting miniature soldiers, and reading!
Barb and Alistair
Barb has also been a great volunteer over the years. She has been ring mistress for the Downtown Horse Show, she has helped with painting jumps and signs and have done her fair share of helping with barn repairs and clean ups. She is also skilled with a needle and thread and has fixed some tack and horse blankets. Throughout those years, Barb has had a few favourite Lancer horses. Her first favourite was Louie and her current favourite is Simba. While they didn’t look alike, Barb said, “they had similar quirks”. When asked about a favourite memory from Lancers, Barb recalled a time when she took her very sick mother to see Boo’s colt. She explained, “My mum had been in hospital for a few months and she could only remember a few things from the time she had her heart attack. One of those things was that Boo the pony at Lancers was going to foal soon. She kept asking if the baby was here whenever I visited her. One Sunday when mum was feeling somewhat better Bruce and I brought her over to see Boo and her colt. It really made Mum's day”.
Thank you, Barb, for all that you bring to Lancers. It just wouldn’t be the same without your humour. We look forward to having you for another twenty years at least!
#featurefriday
