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Stories from the Stables Part 2 – Topper. Ouch!

Our Stories from the Stables series from Carolyn Ward continues with a flea-bitten grey with a shocking attitude.

Topper. I swear that pony could scowl.

It was my week to ride him, and I had just hauled him all the way down to the outdoor school and stood him in the middle to check his girth and stirrups. As I reached under to tighten up the girth he turned his head toward me and eyeballed me, then stepped over with his nearside foreleg; and stamped on my left foot.

I hissed a very rude word and frantically pushed him to move him off. My foot sunk into the woodchip surface with his heavy weight crushing it down. By now he was still looking directly at me, so I started punching his shoulder to try and get him to step off. Today’s teacher was a crosspatch I have no fond memories of; if she had found out about it I’d have been bawled out for having my foot in the wrong place or something.

Poetry By You, Written By You

Birds Eye View – Poetry Written By You

Hi, my name’s Daisy and I have a passion for writing and poetry.

One thing I like to write poems about are birds because they are such free and stunning creatures that fill the skies with their sweet sounding songs and happy chirps. I have written a poem about a bird flying in the Norfolk Countryside because that is where I live.

I wrote this poem when I was 10 years old. I have now just turned twelve so although it is not one of my latest poems I would still like to share it with you. If you know Norfolk you might recognise some of the places in the poem.

Home, Health & Style, Popular

12 Steps to Becoming a Self-Confident Kid

Do you ever wish you were more confident? Do you watch other kids standing in front of the class, and presenting their work, and wish you be that self-confident kid?

We often talk about self-confidence and self-esteem in tweens. These two are linked, but slightly different. Self-esteem is about how you feel about yourself, how you value your abilities and yourself. Self-confidence is about how you feel about your abilities, about trusting yourself to do something.

You could have a high self-esteem generally, but have low self-confidence in a particular area, e.g. doing maths, or standing in front of the classroom and presenting a book report.

We often split people into ‘confident’ and ‘not confident’, but we can all learn to be more confident. It just takes a bit of practice. Here are our top tips for increasing self-confidence and self-esteem!

Travel

Jump! Around the World – Parmida in Iran

Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to grow up in another country?

Now you can find out, as we begin our Jump! Mag tour of the world in Iran, where ten year old Parmida lives.

Sports

Stories from the Stables – Part 4 – Summer Camp

Summer Camp at the Stables, from Carolyn Ward

Once a year, in August, Stourton Stables had a summer camp. Fifteen lucky kids were invited to spend a whole week with their pony, grooming, tacking up, and riding every day. There would be a jumping competition and picnic hacks, a visit to the three counties showground, and a swim at the leisure centre.

I was allocated Heidi, a grey mare with a snotty attitude. Literally. One of her tricks was to toss her head about whilst being ridden and flick massive globs of snot and foam backwards into the rider’s face.

Aside from the snot, she was zippy and responsive, pleasant enough to ride; but her main problem was she was evil to groom and tack up. She was a biter and a kicker. Hence I gave an audible groan when they announced we would have to wash our pony’s tail. Drat!