Well shucks.
I had hoped to be really really good through show season at recapping and reflecting on each of the shows we attended. But here I am just checking back in on my blog now.
In my last post I mentioned how thrilled I was to be done with blankets until fall….eek! We’re already there! But I’m going to attempt to go back and forensically reconstruct the summer horseshow by horseshow….or maybe horse by horse. I’d love to say I have a grand plan, but I am definitely not that organized!
I’ll do the really broad recap here, horse by horse, but will add details and videos of each of the equines on my upcoming horseshow posts.
Cassiana SR was the star of the year. One word for the season and for the horse? “Wow!” This mare has been my favorite since the day she showed up on my farm as a coming-2yo in 2012. She stepped up to the 1.40m in Thermal in March and continued her winning ways for our normal season up here. She galloped around the 1.35m (on grass), won her way through the 1.30m (on footing), and took her first stab at packing a junior around the 1.10m Medal classes with absolutely lovely rounds. This mare is the complete package!
FF Evita lived up to her reputation as a warrior of a mare. She spent the summer showing in the 1.20m/1.25m open and YJC classes. She picked up some wins and championships along the way, but more importantly, became much more rideable as the season progressed. And that’s coming from Thermal where she was 12 months under saddle and jumped around the 1.25m before she was anywhere near as broke on the flat as I expect a horse to be at that level! But she proved that she is game to jump literally anything I point her at regardless of whether it *should* seem “too big” or not. Her biggest transformation of the year was learning to “sit” at the base of the jumps rather than charging at them. She’s not the most precocious horse I’ve taken into the jumper ring (that award goes to Cassiana SR!), but once she figures something out she progresses on to the next lesson and never forgets the last. And after this season, I am absolutely confident in saying that this mare is a prospect for the biggest classes. She has the heart of a lion and a jump to match!
FF Bella moved over to the “sold” page toward the end of the spring when she was purchased by a truly lovely family who trains at Magnolia Ridge Stables. And now I have more examples of the picture above than I can count. She managed to pick up TWO or THREE championships at every single show they attended for the rest of the summer. WOW! Talk about a match made in heaven! I absolutely cannot wait to watch Bella and her kid tackle bigger and bigger classes as the seasons roll on. My breeders promised me that Bella was really and truly a one-in-a-million horse, and boy has she proved that each step of the way.
Rasen BHS also moved out on lease to one of the most beautiful facilities in our area. He’s been the perfect caretaker and teacher for his leasee, and has been every bit the gentleman we all know he is. I am looking forward to bringing him home this fall to start preparing for our annual winter trip to Thermal. Can’t wait to show The Big Beautiful Hairy Raisin again!
William L had a shorter season than most years. He broke a hind splint bone on the way down to Thermal in February, as detailed in my Thermal Wrap-Up post. So I opted out of showing him in May. Although he had shown our 3rd week in Thermal, I could feel that his hind end was the tiniest bit NQR from the leg-over-the-trailer-divider incident, and so we spent the spring doing lots of hacking, lots of chiropractic and bodywork, and held off of showing until the end of June. Billy, like the trooper he is, stepped back into the High AO classes in June with a Reserve Championship in the division, and in July with a Championship in the division. And at age 17 and coming off of the injury, that was a terrific way to wrap up the season for him. He is my heart and my champion regardless of placings, but the championships are icing on the cake!
Foxy Socks had a similarly interesting show season this year. Sadie had shown her in the 0.75m and 0.80m jumpers last season with top ribbons and championships every time out. This year we focused more of the season on her medium pony, who needed the experience in the show ring. So veteran (and 22yo) Socks didn’t come out to play until the June/July Tbird. Sadie got to do her first 0.85m classes and came home with top 2 placings in several classes. And then Socks told us something was wrong when she stopped for the first time ever in a class (she then came back around, jumped the jump and finished the jump-off). Thinking at the time that it was an uncharacteristic spook, we tried again the next day with the same result. The second time it would have been a funky distance, and so we made another excuse and dropped her back down to the 0.75m the next morning where she did the same thing for a 3rd time. In hindsight (which is oh so painfully clear), she was telling us something was hurting, and she just couldn’t do the difficult distances for Sadie (but jumped happily and ears forward at every decent distance). But no heat, no obvious lameness, and no swelling left us stymied as to what could have been going on. I turned her back out in her field of mares when we got home, and she resumed her “alpha mare” shenanigans of chasing the other mares away from her food, which resulted in a big fat leg a few days after coming home. Subsequent ultrasound showed a 90% rupture of her check ligament in the RF leg. Going back to the show, our guess is that she strained the ligament there and ruptured it sharking at the other mares after returning home. But adding to the mix was the fact that she’s starting down the Cushing’s path (noticed prior to the show when we had to body clip her in June for the first time ever). Sadly, I had ordered a supplement to add to her diet that hadn’t shown up before we left for Tbird. I’m left wondering if the supplement would have supported her body better and left her less vulnerable to a ligament injury. Moot point, I suppose, as it happened. But now we’re 6 weeks into our rehab work (after 5 weeks off). She’s back to a full 30 minute workout each day, and I know Sadie is looking forward to getting to jump her again. I feel very fortunate that is was “just” a check ligament injury and didn’t involve her DDFT or Suspensory. And we all agree that if she needs to retire, boy has she more than earned the honor of retiring here! Though I have a sneaking suspicion that she’ll be a lot happier with a job than without.
Darden Maximus is Sadie’s medium Welsh pony. We joke that he’s a bit of a celebrity because I posted the video of Sadie getting him as a Christmas present on YouTube (video here), which went mildly viral. Sadie and I spend many rainy days reading through the crazy comments, and it’s allowed me to teach her some valuable life lessons about jealousy, spell-checking, grammar, and graciousness toward others…even if they have something YOU really really want. While YouTube is teaching her those lessons, Max is busy teaching the amount of humility that only a spooky pony can teach a kid 😉 
Fortunately, he’s a pretty quick study, and they ended that same week with some lovely rounds and top ribbons. Socks taught Sadie how to look through the ears and gallop forward. Max has taught her how to maintain a connection AND leg! And she’s come out of the season a much better rider for it. She also learned the all important lesson that Comedian, Craig Quartermaine, jokes about below, “Horse girls have this one little pathological quirk, no matter what happens, it’s never the horse’s fault…”:
Final horse wrap-up, my baby mare, Gracia Cantura. “Tori” is a 4yo Holsteiner that I imported as a personal horse alongside one of my sales horse imports. I started her this spring, and quickly learned that she is a “special” horse, and I mean that in every possible way! She has been a bit more difficult than the rest of my youngsters. Part of that is because I bought her as a young foal, so there was no way to know whether she would be simple or less so, though she came from a long line of horses with absolutely stellar temperaments. And she’s not rude or malicious, just pretty certain that I can’t tell her what to do if she doesn’t already want to do that thing that I’m asking her. As such, she doesn’t buck or rear, bolt or do anything else “aggressive.” She just also doesn’t turn exactly when I want her to, or slow down when *I* think it might be appropriate. And it came as a bit of a surprise to me since all of my imports have been so so simple and easy every single step of the way. But that’s because (as noted on my “Got Brains?” page), my primary selector for horses is for my breeders to send me ones they would put their grandmas on. This one came because she’s bred to the nines and absolutely chock full of potential. And my assessment of that element has not changed one bit! I think this may be the most talented jumper I’ve ever ridden……IF we survive the young horse years!
So the young horse classes didn’t go quite as expected, but Tori improved from show to show and from class to class at each of the shows. By the end of the season she was jumping around (….just like the rest of my babies jumped around at their first shows as 4yos! Lol!)
All in all, the season was a success. Every one of the young and/or sales horses (Cassie, Evita, Bella, Tori, Rasen, and Max) made great strides forward in careers, wins, and experience. And the oldsters (Billy and Socks) dealt with setbacks gracefully and should be ready to go at the beginning of next season.
I’m enjoying a couple of “off” months where the horses get to spend more time doing long and low hacks and trail rides (and a lot fewer jumps), and really looking forward to getting everyone going again to prep for Thermal!
I will share videos of each of the horses once I get to my individual wrap-up pages, but will also note that I update the videos on the sales pages regularly, so more updated videos are there as well.
Happy Fall to all!