My Nike Pony!
Warming up...we showed 3' Large Pony Hunters
I started formal riding lessons when I was 6 years old. I loved everything about my weekly, and then biweekly riding lessons. When I was 8 I got my first pony! Nike (Rosemels Polonaise) was everything that any parent could wish for their young daughter. He was snotty enough to keep me from becoming overly confident, but reliable enough to ensure that I would never get seriously hurt. Nike and I did everything together. I rode him bareback galloping across a golf driving range and I showed him in all of the top Pony Hunter shows in Texas. We even qualified for the National Pony Finals together. As I grew up it soon became evident that I would not be able to keep Nike for my whole life. I wanted to jump bigger and go faster as he was not going to be able to accommodate. Along with my ever supportive parents and the best trainer in the entire world I decided to sell Nike to pursue my dreams of riding Jumpers...
Scooter Boy!
Me and Scooter with my Chocolate Lab Dutchess (who sadly passed away several years ago)
Enter Scooter. Scooter (Clearly Canadian) was the saint of an old school master horse. I swear he learned the courses before I did...With Scooter I was able to start jumping higher and my love for showing grew fast and furious! Then tragedy struck (at least in my 13 year old head...), My trainer announced that she was moving to Colorado and would therefore not me training me any more. Scooter and I worked together to find another trainer that we would be just as successful. In my mind, this is where my decline in the show world began (though I wouldn't realize it for 4 or 5 more year...). I rode with a trainer for a short time, but we did not get along. When I realized Scooter was too old to keep going as hard and fast as I wanted to go, I asked about getting a baby to bring up and to train and learn together with. I was flatly told, NO!
Eventually we landed with Allana Featherstone. Allana and I clicked. I boarded at a backyard lesson barn and she would travel from across the city to work with Scooter and I on a weekly basis. I began to gain my confidence back and realized again that Scooter was just getting to be too old to carry me to a higher level. Unsure of what to do, my mom and I flew to Colorado to work with my old trainer on finding me the next perfect horse.
Charlie in a rare North Texas snow "storm" (what is that maybe a 1/8"???)
Charlie and me just hanging out!
Enter Charlie. Charlie (Colorado Kid) was a scraggly looking dressage horse that my trainer knew would have the potential to work with me at the next level. I trusted her outright, as I always did (and still do). We bought the horse and had him shipped south to Texas. Allana and her assistant trainer Steve worked with me to build the horse up the show level. It didn't take us long to realize that he was a solid Junior Hunter and not quite the Jumper that we were hoping for. Regardless, we went on to kick some serious tail on the Texas Hunter Show Circuit. In that time, Allana announced that she was moving back to Canada. Steve and I would persevere and continue to work our tails off! Aside from showing and helping to manage the barn, I helped Steve to work a Selle Francais Import business. A French business man would ship us 3 or 4 year old Selle Francais and we would train them, show them, and sell them. It was a blast! I then decided that I was tired of Hunters and wanted to continue my dream of riding Jumpers.
Thelma and I at one of the Las Colinas Horse Shows...anyone else noticing a pattern with my horses? (all chestnuts with a blaze...)
Enter Thelma (Salute). If Charlie was scraggly when I first got him, Thelma was a disaster! She was also from Colorado and had been living outside for most of the Winter. She was fat and so hairy! While I never really connected emotionally to Thelma, we did succeed fairly well, until the owner of the barn where Steve and I were training sold it to a housing developer. Steve was looking for another barn and encouraged me to begin working with a "big name" trainer north of the city. When I did, Thelma and I crashed drastically. They did not understand me or her big personality. After a tragic several months of falls, refusals, and tears I sought Steve back out. We gave Thelma some breathing room in the pasture and begin to build both of our confidences back. I never quite built back my desire for the show ring. By this time I was looking at going to college out of state, in Virginia, and made the decision to send Thelma back to my trainer in Colorado to sell.
Harry, a pony that I helped break/train while in college
Rocky, my friends Arab pony that I rode while she was abroad.
From Scooter to Thelma, including the numerous other horses I rode and helped train, I never developed a bond as much as I did with my Nike pony. Even as I entered college I was unsure I would ever meet a horse I loved as much as that pony. No, I don't think that it was childhood love. He was the best pony I could have EVER had. Two years in to college I had tried riding on their equestrian team and clashed HARD with the trainer. I then found a small Pony Club barn that needed help with a little Hafflinger pony (Harry). As I worked with Harry I realized that I was ready to find my forever horse. This would be the horse that I would have for the rest of my life. I was done competing, done chasing ribbons, done with all of it. I wanted a horse that I could bond with like I did Nike. We would face challenges and heartache and share joys and triumphs. I did not take this search lightly. However, as I was working with my friends Arab pony while she was abroad, the owner of the barn approached me and told me that she was bringing in a Thoroughbred mare off the track and would I like to lease her. I was ecstatic! The lease only consisted of paying the monthly bills and the horse would be as good as mine.
The day big mare arrived...
Such an adorable face, even when scruffy and gross...
Enter Trinity! Trinity (no real show name as I didn't want to show, though I thought if I did I would call her Fortune's Prophecy) had been raced and raced and raced to no end. She had won her maiden race and never really amounted to much else. I thought that I would work with this mare while I continued my search. Little did I know, my search was complete. I fell hard and fast for this snotty big mare. Nothing was easy with her, but I loved every minute of it! When I graduated from college the barn owner signed all of Trinity's papers over to me. Just like that I had my forever horse!
Trinity and I moved to Colorado for graduate school. We had a blast running barrels, jumping,t rail riding, and just doing a little of it all. I was just waiting for the right time and I was going to breed my mare. She was my perfect partner and I knew that I finally wanted to have a foal to train on my own (a dream from back 13 years earlier), and I wanted it to be hers!
When my husband joined us in Colorado and we got married he got a little grey Quarter Horse Mare, Frosty. We loved the horses an had a blast. Then tragedy struck, twice (A Really Rough Weekend, The End of an Era). My Trinity was gone. Just like that. After several months and another horse later, my husband and I decided to take a break from horses and focus on us. We sold Frosty and our other little mare.
Then, in April 2015, we prayed, a lot, and made the move back to Virginia for me to take the job of Equine Coordinator at a Boys and Girls Home. I am in charge of 5 program horses and 3 boarders. I work with the kids in the program to ride, understand horses, do chores, and I really use the therapeutic power of the horse to help their souls and their hearts. It is amazing.
After settling in, I knew it was time to get a horse of my own again. I also knew it was going to be a foal. I looked at several mare and foal combos and weanlings; however, none stuck. Then I found a Nurse Mare Industry rescue only 2 hours from my new home. I went to visit in fell in love with 3 little squishy faces. So, here I embark on a new journey, a new era, and new...everything!
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