Okay, starting where I left off. The show that I did for summer camp with Teddy went fabulous. We won our first class! We ended up with a ribbon in every class and were even reserve champion the first day. (:

Logan and I moved back to Circle A Plantation with Jennifer in July, and neither of us have ever been happier.

I continued showing Paisley for the rest of the year. We had a few tough shows, but we pulled through every time. She has taught me so much, just as I have taught her as much as I could. I still enjoy riding her, and I’ll hopefully still show her in the coming season. (:

Paisley’s best show of the year was easily CEC Finals, on November 14th. It was our last show of the year and she rocked it. We won both of our flat classes, and also tied for champion in both the hunters and equitation. She was fantastic and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

The CEC awards banquet was held on December 4th. It was so exciting, I’ve never been to an awards banquet for horses before! I ended up with four big, beautiful ribbons!:

• 7th place Long Stirrup Hunter – Fancy “Too Cute to Boot JTF”
• 3rd place Long Stirrup Hunter – Paisley “Secret Crush”
• 3rd place 15-17/Adult Equitation
• 2010 Grand Champion Long Stirrup Equitation

But wait, there’s more exciting news! On November 11, 2010, I got a new horse! Her name is Harlow, aka Dinner at Eight, and she is an Off The Track Thoroughbred! She’s 12 years old and 16.2 hands, and she’s a very very dark bay. Harlow is very out of shape and will require a lot of work, but I’m hoping she’ll be as wonderful as I’m imagining. (:

Harlow’s progress can be tracked in her training blog at: www.harlowsjourney.blogspot.com

Here are a couple pictures for all of you who have been patiently waiting. (:

Showing Teddy in Aiken, July 2010

Showing Paisley at CEC Finals, November 2010

Schooling Paisley at Three Fox Farm, November 2010

Hacking Harlow at home, December 2010

Jumping Logan at home, August 2010

Ribbons from CEC Banquet 2010

First thing we did was have our lesson. It was my first time riding Teddy. I also think it was the first time anyone but my trainer has ridden him! He was absolutely fabulous. I’m in love! Hehe. We hit off right off the bat, and he’s one of the few horses I’ve ever ridden that I haven’t been nervous at ALL on. (Usually, riding a horse for the first time I get anxious about cantering and jumping.) He’s sweet as can be. We worked on a bit of jumping but the ring was pretty sloppy. My trainer did get some cute pictures of us, so here they are!

After we rode, we went inside and ate lunch, then worked on our stall decorations for the show this weekend. Teddy’s turned out really cute. (: Then we went swimming, and it was on our way home.

Day two tomorrow, more pictures on the way!

Also, I’ve added a Meet Paisley page! Go learn about the newest pony in my life, from her own words. (:

Paisley

I haven’t been riding her a whole lot because of the heat, but Logan has been living with her for the past 3 weeks so I see her almost everyday. Last weekend we had a show up in Camden, part of our CEC circuit. It was the first time we’ve taken Paisley to a show, her first time jumping at a show, and only our second time taking her off her farm. It was really exciting! In the morning, she did the walk/trot with her little girl. She spooked a few times and her rider tumbled off, so they didn’t place too well. After that, I was extra determined to do well on her! I rode her in the last division (Long Stirrup) so we didn’t start warming up until a few hours after her walk/trot classes. She was calm in the large arena for the most part, but she still spooked at a few things. As usual, she looked at every jump and jumped everything like a deer. I was kind of worried about how well we were going to do. Oh, and I had accidentally left my spurs on because I’d been riding several horses, and I accidentally gave her spur…she didn’t like that and had a bit of a baby tantrum. Hehe. I fell off, but it was literally the coolest fall ever! I did like a double backflip! Hahaha. I was on the ground for maybe two seconds then I was up laughing and getting back on her. Silly pony. (: So then we finished our warm up and then started our wait for the classes. Short and Long Stirrup got combined so there were a lot of entries in our class. In our first hunter over fences class, Paisley erased every concern I had about how well we were going to do. She jumped perfectly and got every single lead, and I got her to every single distance. After the last jump, I couldn’t stop smiling! My trainer was cracking up at the big grin on my face. Even after such a great first trip, I was still amazed when they called that Paisley and I won the class and the blue ribbon! I was so proud of her! Our next hunter trip was perfect too, except that she got the wrong lead off of a diagonal line. But not to worry, she did her first ever flying lead change right after. (: For some reason, that to this day we still can’t figure out, we got second place. We all think I should have won the class, but second is not bad either! Then we had our equitation over fences. It was almost perfect, except during our rollback, we chipped the second jump. We got a third place in that class. After that, we went in for our flats. First was equitation. It went absolutely perfect. My sitting trot on Paisley is spot on, and when they asked for a canter from a halt, she stepped right into it. To no surprise, we won that class too! In our under saddle class, a pony galloped up out of control behind Paisley and she bucked a few times, then switched her lead. That blew it for us. ): We got a 6th place. Not to worry though, we got reserve champion hunter and reserve champion equitation. (: I was so so proud of her!

Logan

Logan has been loving life, living with Pais! They’re destined to be together forever. <3 Hehe. Logie also went to the horse show. When I was warming him up, he was acting stupid because he couldn’t see Paisley and he tried to buck me off like six times. |: So we only got to jump one fence! We entered my age group equitation, 15 & Older. First we had our flat and it was going perfectly until I thought they said trot when they actually said halt. ): We still got second place though! Then we did our over fences. I was kind of nervous for a few reasons: 1. Logan does not handle heat well and it was 105 degrees. 2. Logan is an amazing jumper but he fizzles out veryyy fast at shows. 3. It was our first time showing that height. But we went in with a winning attitude, and had the best course of our career together! The only flaw we had was that I had to do a simple change, but he only trotted one stride. I thought I won the class, but I got second place. I didn’t think that was fair, because the girl who won broke gait too, and her horse bucked. Oh well. I was still very proud of Logan. (:

Other Ponies/Horses

Last week, Kimberly and I went out to our trainer’s to ride ponies. Kim just bought Molly (YAY!), so she rode her. I rode a pony that Mrs. Nikki has in for training named Missy. She’s a 7 year old dark bay large pony and she’s been in for about 45 days. She was so much fun! Here is a video of us! Please do not critique either of us, she is still green. (:

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to camp at Mrs. Nikki’s! I’ll be riding her horse, Teddy. He is a 4 year old paint, about 15.2hh. He is always a hack winner and also pins well over fences. I’m very excited! On Thursday, we are leaving for the PSJ Celebration Show in Aiken! I’m so excited!

Stay Tuned!

I also wanted to thank you guys sooo much for all of your support. I love you all!

Bad news is that my job with Jennifer didn’t work out. She kept delaying me because she was very busy with the college equestrian team that she coaches. And now that the college girls are gone, I haven’t heard from her. I’m not surprised, because she is the kind of person who commits to lots of things but doesn’t always follow through, but I am extremely disappointed. I went out and rode with her once after I showed Dundee, and rode Ariel and Sky and had a great time. I wish she hadn’t gotten my hopes up so high.

Good news is that I’ve been riding my mom’s student’s pony. Her name is Paisley and she’s a 6 year old Quarter Pony. She looks exactly like Fancy! She’s very green when it comes to jumping but she’s got a ton of potential. Yesterday I jumped her over a 2’9ish oxer and she just soared. Today we went schooling, but more about that in my next post!

Logan had a sleepover with Paisley last night. He has a new girlfriend! hehe. He’ll be moving in with her very soon! Yesterday I rode both Logan and Paisley and they both did great. Paisley’s mommy is a professional photographer, so she took some pictures for us. Here they are!

Logan

He got a long spot..hehehe.

Paisley

So, the first bit of bad news is that Fancy has been sold to another farm. ): No more little grey Fancypants for me. Sigh. So the points we’ve accumulated in the hunters don’t mean anything. I’m really going to miss her quirky little self.

The second part of that is that I am switching barns, show teams, etc. This isn’t really bad news at all, but I am going to miss Mrs. Nikki and Kimberly. They’ve been my family for the past several months. But I’ll see them at shows and such, so that’s not all that bad.

A few pictures you haven’t seen..

Now, back to the blogging. It’s time for the good news! I have a good bit of it. (:

Alright well first of all, my old trainer, Jennifer, called my mom a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be interested in exercising and training ponies for her. Of course I am! Haha. So that’s my new job. (: You guys should look forward to lots of pictures of adorableee ponies!

Second of all, Logan will be moving back out to Circle A (where Jennifer is) and he’ll be used in lessons a few times of week to help earn his keep.

Thirdlyyy, I have some exciting new show news! I was supposed to ride Nikki’s horse at a schooling show last weekend, but she texted me the day before and said that he wasn’t ready. I was kind of disappointed about not being able to show. About five minutes later, Jennifer texted me and asked if I’d like to show her pony, Dundee! I was sooo excited. He is a 14hh buckskin welsh pony from Florida that she has on lease. I had never ever seen him until that morning, then I got on him in the schooling ring for about 30 minutes before taking him into the open equitation division. We got second place on the flat, only because Dundee got spooked by the horse behind him and fought me to pick up the canter. Jennifer heard the judge say she was going to place me first. “/ But then we had our over fences. We went last out of everyone and as soon as we walked out of the ring, I saw a few faces drop. Hahaha. It was seriously the best round of my entire life. We won the class, and got equitation champion. (: Nobody could believe I’d never ridden the pony before!

Here are a few pictures my new friend Demi took at the show of me riding Dundee. I’ll have new pony pictures on Sunday!

]]> http://maclaywhat.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/bad-news-good-news/feed/ 2 Moo febshow less champ dun dee cute http://maclaywhat.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/lets-bring-you-up-to-date/ http://maclaywhat.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/lets-bring-you-up-to-date/#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:58:41 +0000 maclaywhat http://maclaywhat.wordpress.com/?p=134 ]]> Hey guys! Sorry about my absence. I’ve had a ton going on! I’m going to try to give you a quick update, and then come back eventually to share some pictures.

Fancy and I are doing amazing! At our February show, we got fourth in our age group equitation flat (we used it as a warm-up), won our long stirrup eq flat, got seconds in all of our over fences and hunter under saddle. We ended up long stirrup reserve champions. (: It was our first show cantering courses and our first time doing an equitation course. I was really happy with her! Our March show was big competition because not only was it CEC, but it was SCHJA “C” rated! We showed in long stirrup as usual, against 9 riders all on big horses! We got second place in our first class of the day, eq flat. Then we won our warm-up over fences and won our eq over fences! I was so excited! Our first hunter over fences was a disaster because she tripped down a line and almost had to refuse the second jump, so we didn’t place. But we got third in our second trip! We didn’t pin in hunter under saddle because obviously big horses are prettier movers. But we did win equitation champion! I was ecstatic! Right now, we’re leading the equitation division in points by 20 points, and are in third place for hunters. Woo!

Logan is doing really well. We went to a local show a couple weekends ago just to get him out and about, and their trainer absolutely adores him (she’s asked to buy him twice!) so I was just like what the hay and showed him in the open equitation. We ended up doing pretty well. (:  He was being a jerk in our warm ups, bucking and all that nonsense. But then we went in for our flat and he was an angel. We got fourth place out of eleven I think. He was a good boy. Then in our over fences, I thought I blew it because during our last rollback, he got excited and didn’t really feel like turning, so he had to swing his bum around and it looked kind of messy. But we placed third, so I was really happy about that. My mom said a bunch of people were saying he’s a pretty mover and I rode him really well, and at the end of my round the judge said “nice trip”. (:

I am doing really well too. My old trainer called the other day and asked me to work for her exercising her smaller ponies. I can’t wait to start! School is going pretty well, and I’m LOVING spring break!

Last week, I think it was, Logan got hurt. He’s been dealing with it ever since. It’s a very long story so I don’t feel up to sharing it, but he’s improving and should be back to work very slowly in the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, I went and had a lesson on Fancy for the second time, in preparation for a show. We did really good and we started to mesh a lot better than the first lesson. I had a great time.  (:

Friday night, I spent the night at my trainer’s with my friend Kimberly. We were up chatting and giggling until 1:30am like typical teenage girls…only this time we regretted it! My trainer woke us up at 3:45am to load up the ponies and hit the road. I felt like a zombie!

We were the first ones at the showgrounds, so we had the arena all to ourselves to warm up. Fancy was perfect! I was so happy with her. (: She got her lead every time and she was jumping like a star!

A bunch of my show friends were there, so I got to hang out with them when I wasn’t in the ring. That was a lot of fun, since I haven’t seen some of them since May!

I showed against Kimberly and my trainer (among others) in the Schooling and Pre-Green Hunters. Fancy and I did greattt! We got a fourth and a third(we beat my trainer!) in Schooling Hunter O/F, and a third on the flat. Then in Pre-Greens we got two fifths over fences and a sixth on the flat. I so proud of the pony and myself! I rode very well. (:

We may be doing a local show next weekend just for fun. I’ll let you guys know what we decide!

Here some pictures from my lesson and the horse show..

Lesson

Show

Logan is almost 20, so he’s going into semi-retirement. I’ve outgrown him and he’s just getting up there. He’ll still be around and I’ll still ride him, just not as much. (:

Being that I don’t ride Stormy anymore and Logan is out of the shows, that leaves me essentially horseless! But don’t worry. I’m on a show team this year and my trainer is letting me show her ponies until I can get a new horse, which will hopefully be in the Spring. (:

Every horse show I’ve planned since the September HLF show has been cancelled due to weather! Ahhh. It’s sooo frustrating. There is an HLF show next weekend that I am going to ask my trainer about, but it’s not guaranteed…

I took a lesson on Sunday with my trainer and rode a very cute medium pony named Fancy! It was so so fun to ride a pony again, I just love them. I had a really good lesson and I’m hopefully going out this weekend, too…maybe. Here are a couple pictures from my lesson!

Firstly, I’ve picked back up with riding Stormy and she’s been doing great.

Secondly, we have two baby mules. The second one was born two weeks or so after the first. Their names are Moonpie and Pepper, and they are both as cute buttons. Moonpie is about 7 weeks old now. (:

Thirdly, the show at Hardee Lane I mentioned in my last post went great, we got a third in eq flat and a sixth in eq over fences. We were having a perfect course, but then Logan trotted the last fence because my leg slipped. Ugh. Oh well!

Soo all the new stuff:

Logan got new shoes! He has always worn eggbars because he has “changes in his navicular bone”, but the new farrier hot shoed him and put him in plain horseshoes. So far so good! He’s moving sooo much nicer. I’m so happy!

On Sunday, we have our first horse show since HLF! All of the other ones we’ve planned on have been rained out. Anyway, we’re going to Nikki’s to show on Sunday. I’m taking Logan and we’re doing a ton of classes. I was going to take Stormy, but her owners took her to Ward this week. I’m showing one of Nikki’s green ponies, Molly, in the crossrails and babies. I’m super excited! She’s really cute and I can’t believe I’m finally getting to catch-ride something! So there will be lots of pictures from that.

I think that’s about it for now. I have new pictures, but I’ll made a huge picture post later on.

Adios! Maddy