I was warming up for my sunset jump school on TheWonderPony and mentioned to the fearless leader that I had some misgivings about next weekend.

I commented, “For the record, I might scratch from the show.”

His reply, “Whaaaaaat? Why??”

 

“Because……

I’m just not sure I can handle it.”

You see.

There are some individuals in your life,

whether it’s a person

 

a pet

 

 

or a pony

 

that leave a deeper imprint than others.

I’ve had a lot of horses.

And no, I still won’t tell you how many I have.

 

 

There were special horses

 

not so special horses

 

and some that were particularly “special” in all the wrong ways.

 

There was the mare that almost made me quit eventing for good

And the mare that took me around my first Prelim

There was a pony I bred & raised that was an ultra SuperPony

Then there was a pony I raised who never could figure out to jump with his front feet and THEN his back feet……..(fortunately he became an awesome trail horse!)

Some horses “earned their keep”

and some…………….didn’t.

In all the horses I’ve had,

and yes there have been an awful lot……..

There are two that really made their mark…..

My first mare was a true super horse.

Special.

Unbelievably special.

 

This was a mare that carted me around, never had a stop, never had a rail, and I found out many years later gave me 100% unrealistic expectations about event horses.

I never “set her up” for a fence. She never made a mistake & I never had to do anything.

I had no idea I wasn’t “learning how to ride” or that any horse in the world couldn’t just go run around Rolex. This mare could…….

With a monkey on her.

25 years later I found super horse number TWO.

TheWonderPony

If you’ve been following along with BadEventer’s adventures you’ve met TheWonderPony

 

 

I feel like a light should come out of the sky and music should start playing when I talk about him.

He is the ultimate cross country horse.

He’s been competing in eventing since 2008

and after 75 recognized events

yes SEVENTY-FIVE

he has never, nope not ever, had a stop on cross country.

He took me around my first Intermediate.

 

He gave me my first and ONLY blue ribbon in eventing.

We’ve competed in 25 events together

16 of them at Prelim or above.

Over the past year

he’s started having some rails at Prelim

First it was 3, then 4, then more & more…….

He’s still blasting around Prelim cross country like the cross country beast he is.

And he’s still winning the dressage.

But it’s time to step down from the big stuff…….

He’s The Wonder Pony, he doesn’t owe me a thing.

Soon he’ll go to a new rider to teach them the ropes at Beginner Novice. I changed my entry for this weekend to Training……….but I just can’t decide if I want one last romp around the country.

I might not be able to see the jumps through the tears.