Cupid and I went and fancy pranced today, or attempted to. The Pony Club arranged a clinic with one of the local professionals and because I joined as an adult member we were allowed to attend! Despite being the greenest in the ring and the ones with very little formal training, I’m proud of my little mare and how she tried for me! 

Our day started at 6:30 where I woke up and regretted life. It was the weekend, I should be relaxing and not going to embarrass myself at a clinic. After laying in bed for a few minutes I finally got the motivation to get up and get ready for the day. 

The ponies were awake and excited to see me. Then Cupid realized that along with the feed buckets I was holding my grooming supplies. Little Miss Sassypants seemed very proud of her decision to lay down last night and become one with her pee spots. Grey horses are always the best to get presentation ready! After 30 minutes of working on the stains I decided to call it quits and hope the tack covered the remaining “color”. Spoiler, it didn’t completely but we survived. 

Getting Cupid onto the trailer was an experience. At the initial attempt she decided to duck her head, turn tail and run. Nothing like watching your horse run from the trailer into the neighbors back yard. After catching the little monster we put her chain on and with some convincing, mostly from my trainer, we got her loaded and headed over to the facilities. 

We successfully completed our first Pony Club safety check, as an adult it’s interesting to say the least. Someone comes over and checks all your tack and safety equipment, then clears you to mount your horse. From there I hopped on and went to go walk around while waiting on the clinician. She arrived and there was a quick Q&A with all the riders where we covered the background experience of our horses, our experience level, and what our goals were. I’m fairly sure that answering that my goal for Cupid is just to solidify our foundation was not the right answer but it is the honest truth. 

We took a pathway to the dressage arena, then started the lesson. During the clinic we covered lots of trot work, including transitions and half halts. It was fascinating hearing how this clinician viewed half halts, less of a halt/preparation for the next movement and more of a rebalancing act, and I think Cupid actually responded extremely well to her method. It involved much more use of the corners than I’m used to and took a bit of work to get used to but I’m really looking forward to using it more during our rides!

While our trot work was fairly decent, just needed a lot of motivation, our canter work left a lot to be desired. For the first lap I unfortunately didn’t maintain our communication and we quickly lost implusion and broke gait. Our second lap was much better on Cupids part but I was still a hot mess. I worked on maintaining my outside leg and unfortunately collapsed my shoulders forward which threw Cupid off. With some work I did get better, but this is clearly one of the big things I need to work on. 

Overall, I loved the clinic and can’t wait to work with this trainer again. She was extremely positive about Cupid and our lack of experience, and she broke everything down into understandable details regarding the how and why of what I needed to do as a rider. My biggest takeaway is that I need to remember that Cupid is a large pony with short legs, when lessoning with larger horses I can’t compare her to horses with larger legs and she’ll never feel like a larger horse. She’s my little grey monster pony who tries her heart out for me with every move she makes. 

Finally, sorry for the lack of pictures. They just didn’t happen today.

Thanks to Instagram It is one of the worst kept secrets that I’m working on training both girls to become low level eventers. Cupid, with her dressage and hunter background is fairly well suited to this endeavor once she’s convinced that everything is not out to eat her. Foxy, with her lack of jump training is less suited but makes up for it with her bravery and curiosity. The biggest issue in this training process though is me and the amount of hours in a day. 

Fox still doesn’t know how she feels about this whole Eventing thing.

Keeping the girls at home, with Chance, has been a fantastic experience so far. I get to be 100% in control of everything and have developed deeper relationships with my horses than I ever imagined possible. But all this has come at a cost, my riding time. 

With everything falling to me to care for I quickly run out of time to actually fit in solid rides. Weekends can go from planned trail rides with trot sets to hill work in the yard because fences need repair, holes need to be filled (thank you Foxy), or some other maintenance need has arisen. Evenings after work can go from dressage work to lunging because someone has trashed a stall during the day and it needs to be completely stripped, or I get stuck at the office later than planned. 

Despite all of the extra work I don’t think I could ever go back to having someone else care for my horses. We miss rides more often than not, we spend far too much time working on ground manners, tricks, or other silly things (Cupid still hasn’t figured out this whole ground driving while pulling the paddock drag business). But we’re more of a team than ever. Being able to lead without a halter, point where I want them to move to and communicate without words is priceless. If we complete in a tadpole/entry level trial this year I’ll be happy, but if we end up continuing to build our partnerships without competing then that’s something I’ll be equally happy with. 

A year ago I never would have imagined this type of training would be possible

Above all, I feel like I’m finally moving forward with understanding how my herd thinks and the motivations for their behavior. That knowledge is priceless and utterly rewarding.

After 3 years of prep I am proud to announce that my girls have finally come home. Cupid and Foxy officially moved to my parents private farm early last week!

This process has been a long one, from getting the barn built, to arranging the trailer. But I’m happy to report that the move day when extremely smoothly and the girls settled into their new home quickly!

The morning started by going out to the barn to make sure that my locker was completely cleared out, their supplements were packed, and the girls were fed and ready to go. Cupid quickly caught on that something was going on when I tried to remove her jolly balls (yes, she has two). When I grabbed the first one she was fine. But when I went to put the second one in my car she panicked. So that had to wait until we were officially ready to go.

The trailer showed up on time and was the perfect size and set up for my girls. Much to my surprise Cupid loaded like a champ. But once she realized that we were actually going somewhere and not practicing, she did start having one of her temper tantrums. The girl who was hauling them for me handled keeping an eye on her, while I grabbed Foxy, like a true professional.

Foxy on the other hand needed a bit of encouragement. She has always been a bit uneasy about ramps but with some clucking from the group she agreed that loading would be the right answer. I honestly feared how the girls would load and i couldn’t be any prouder with how they handled themselves. I was able to identify some items that need work but the girls far exceeded my expectations.

The drive was the longest 15 minutes of my life. I followed the trailer and was pleased to see that they behaved and acted like they did this everyday.

We arrived at my place and got ready to unload the girls. Cupid, naturally, had to remind everyone she’s the baby and acted like she had never backed off a trailer before. Foxy, on the other hand, unloaded like a champ and listened to my directions about backing up and then the step off.

As soon as they were released they both took off. Watching them run like that was heartwarming. They did not appear spooked or upset, just excited to check out their surroundings. Cupid let Foxy lead during their initial exploration but once she grew in confidence she took the lead and began exploring her new home.

By that evening both girls were acting like they had been at their new home their whole lives. They were calmly enjoying their hay, making a mess of the water, and determining the best napping spots. Watching them that first night was like a peaceful sunset breeze blowing across the yard, it felt like home.

So far it has been a bit over a week and I am already pleased with how the girls have settled in. They have both stopped cribbing, which is impressive since I never imagined that it would stop. Cupid has begun laying down, stretched out like a cat in from of a fireplace, for her afternoon nap. Foxy has become far bolder than I ever imagined possible, when the fence boards were in the yard waiting to be installed she would trot over them, jumping just for the fun of jumping.

I can’t wait to see how much further they’ll progress now that they’re at their new home. It warms my heart knowing that I made the right choice for them, they’re officially part of the family now.