Hitching Post and Wonderpony Recap

Hey y'all-

Since this is our blog and you have chosen to subject yourself to the shameless narcissism of me writing about how much I love my horses, let me tell you how much I love my horses.

Two days before leaving to return to Vermont, I let myself be talked into taking a pony back with me to sell. His wonderful owner decided that with her expanding herd of trail ponies, one very special buckskin was simply too talented to handle. Skeptical at first, I got on him, and then was no longer skeptical. Tiz had jumped a couple few times before I rode him, but sorted out a gymnastic with such a great attitude that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play with him for a little while. So, Neil had a buddy for the trip home to Midd, and Tiz got to join the fun. Yesterday I sent him off to his new home with Kerry Lambert! He's going to do lots of trail riding, but also some jumping and eventing. She has updated me that he settled in well, and I'm excited to keep hearing about all their adventures.

Neil has benefited a LOT from some chiro work from Matt and a dressage lesson with Mary Brust, where he let out all of his angst about deer/friends/dinnertime and I got to practice SITTING UP and KEEPING MY LEG ON (you think??). This paid off with a much nicer dressage test at Hitching Post schooling trials than we had a couple of weeks ago at Stoneleigh-Burnham. All of this followed up by a confident, if, er, brisk, couple of jumping rounds led to us taking home the win and our very appropriate prize of some new red bell boots. It's great to end the season feeling like Neil is very confident at the Novice level. We may follow up with one more schooling show to practice going SLOWLY, but when the speedbumps aren't big enough anymore, what's a girl to do? If there was one downer about the event, it was discovering that my very old, very tired Hunter wellies had finally developed cracks in the soles (while having a look at the footing in the water complex...in a couple of feet of water). Luckily I had extra socks, though if anyone saw how quickly I exited onto dry land, they probably thought I was properly crazy.

Many thanks to Carol Pierce for her awesome support and her awesome pony, who took many friends on trail rides and provided for oodles of entertainment during the past month. Also to everyone on the road when I missed the last turn for HPF and got to practice straight-backing the trailer for a hundred yards or so. Also, to the wellies, for not giving out on me til now.

Cheers!
Marina and Neil, sadly solo #ponyshoutout.