It had been nearly 7 months since I had visited my trainer's farm. How time flies! I'll admit, I felt a little nervous about seeing everyone and braced myself for the onslaught of "where have you been" and "what have you been up to" questions, worse though, was having to explain that I am NOT currently riding...sigh. Everyone seemed very excited to see me and I got plenty of hugs from the girls! We stayed for their end of camp show and I got some photos of all the fun.
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| City Diplomat -- who proved to be my most frustrating equine subject to date! |
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| Munchie and Major -- riding in a pairs class |
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| All of these horses came from the same racehorse trainer in NYC !!! I've also ridden all but one of them! |
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| Arizona -- looking fancy |
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| Reddy -- dream horse |
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| Lucy and Munchie in the jackpot jumper round -- too much cute! |
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| City and Natalie -- I've been trying to convince her to event this boy! |
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One of the coolest parts of the day was seeing how much City has progressed since I first met him last summer. You can read about me meeting him
here. He was given to Natalie as a Christmas gift last year (I remember Betsy telling me when I was there in November and I burst into tears -- it hit a little too close home, chestnut horse and all) and she's done some really amazing things with him. Lately, they have been kicking butt and taking names on the Virginia hunt point-to-point scene. when i rode him a year ago he had just arrived at the farm and was a bit of a green bean. I learned how to play polo on him and he was terrified about the mallet, the mallet's shadow, and anytime I moved my arm with the mallet. He barely had a canter, and when he did it was unbalanced and goofy. But, what he did have going for him in those early days was that he had such a great attitude. He was game and willing to do whatever was asked of him. And now? Well, he's a dream horse. Unflappable, he hunts regularly in the first and second flight, he's been running some steeplechase and point-to-point races, and traveling around with a "been there, done that" attitude that everyone hopes their horse will develop. Oh, and best of all, this horse has a beautiful JUMP!!! Although he gave us tons of trouble during our little impromptu photo shoot (see: unflappable horse will not prick it's ears for ANYTHING) he was still my favorite horse to watch all day!
The truth is, I miss the girls, my instructor, the atmosphere and most of all the horses (especially Charlie)...but right now with my hard work paying off left and right, I know I made the right (um, mature) decision to take a small hiatus.
