I’ve had a few blogs over the years, namely of the melodramatic teenager variety. A couple xangas, a couple livejournals and most recently two tumblrs. However, none of these have been horse related. So welcome to my first ever pony blog.
I grew up in Alaska and according to my mom was always horse crazy. No, I didn’t grow up in an igloo, but I feel like my hatred of indoor arenas comes from growing up there. I loved pony rides and the guided trail rides I got to go on occasionally. No one in my family likes horses very much. At age 9, my parents agreed to let me take riding lessons and a couple months later, I had my very own horse. An Arabian mare named Suzanne. She was the perfect first horse, but once I learned how to jump, she and I slowly drifted apart, as that just wasn’t her forte. I was fortunate to have plenty of other horses to jump on and eventually I ditched the saddle altogether. When I was 13, we traded Suzanne for a TB mare named Cherokee, a horse I never should have owned. She had a rearing problem. But as a teenager I wanted my own horse, not to just lease one. In hindsight, the WB gelding I could have leased would have been a much better choice. After two years, we decided that it was time to move to a different horse, so along came Fievel. I leased him from 2003 to 2004. We started off in Long Stirrup Hunters and Equitation, along with some beginner jumpers. The next summer we did really well in the Children’s hunters and level 0 jumpers. I eventually made my 3 foot debut and did respectably well in the 14-17 Eq. I wanted to move up to our 3’3″ medal, and Fievel’s owner was wanting him to move down in height.
I rode a green horse of another client’s for a while and was all set up to lease my dream horse, however, it just wasn’t in the cards. So I moved to another barn for the summer and half leased a TB gelding named Cruiser and tried my hand at the jumpers. Cruiser was a tough ride. Some days we did okay, but I really just never figured out how to ride him well. Luckily for me, he liked me well enough and tolerated my lack of riding skills. He was not known to be the most tolerant horse.
My final year at home, I moved back to my original trainer’s and leased Sly, a 19 yr old TB gelding who was Mr. Hunter Extraordinaire. We formed a good bond and during my time riding him, I was offered a spot on the Kansas State University Equestrian team for the following year. We did very well showing in the AA Hunters and Equitation throughout that summer, but sadly Sly wasn’t registered with our horse show association. I, however, was year end Champion for AA Eq.
Then I moved to Kansas. I got to ride some really neat horses at a local barn and some very challenging horses on the EQ team. I only stayed on the team for most of my freshman year due to a lot of different factors, but stayed here and kept riding.
I eventually moved to another local barn and rode some more neat horses. Chief, Charlie, Lady, just to name a few. My two very generous friends shared their horses Thug and Ginger. Eventually I got Joker, who was a trip. He came with some very bad habits, but after about a year and a half, decided he was over being a jerk. That was also about the time I decided to sell him. The main reason was money, but it also became pretty clear that he wasn’t going to be my jumper. I started riding at my current trainer’s about 5 months before selling him and he improved a lot, but due to his rocky start in training before I bought him, he was better off being sold to a home where he wouldn’t jump. He is now a very happy dressage pony. After I sold Joker in September of 2012, I kept riding at my trainer’s place. I started off on a QH mare named ChaCha and eventually moved on to Mars. Mars was very hard for me to ride at first. He’s a very bouncy warmblood and my forte has always been the Thoroughbreds. I love that horse now though and I am so grateful to have him in my life and even more grateful for my trainer who is the sole reason I’ve been able to keep riding.
Up next: how I acquired the not so black black pony.
The Horse is Not Black 