As I mentioned a couple days ago, while Henry is my current ride, he is not my only pony. I also have a 7yo Hano/TB mare by the stallion Westporte who is away on breeding lease. Her lessee Michelle and I have gotten to be great friends and she also recently acquired (read: I may or may not have forced her to acquire) Jezebel, the mare I evented about a decade ago. Jezebel is now a broodmare and has had a couple of really stunning babies by Valentino Z (another equine love of my life that I will have to blog about some time), so hopefully she will have a couple more for us in the years to come. I have ridden and absolutely adore both parents, so I’m really excited about these babies.

Back to Sadie. I leased her dam and bred to the stallion in 2006. Originally I had a jumper stallion in mind but there was just something about Westporte that I fell in love with. Sadie was born in May 2007 and started a journey that has been pretty fun. There’s nothing quite like knowing your horse from birth, and being there for every major milestone in their life. It’s very challenging to raise one though, and GOD is it ever expensive. Whoever thinks breeding is a cheaper way to get a nice horse, I have some majorly huge bills I’d be happy to show you! But things like this are priceless…

Day old baby Sadie, napping in my lap

Luckily for me, Sadie did not get the memo that she was bred to be a hunter, because while she started in the hunter ring…

at her first show, in the PreGreen

she quickly showed to have the same opinion about hunters as I do (it’s a snoozefest), and we switched her to a jumper. She’s very honest and loves to jump, but needs something challenging enough to keep her attention, so it was a much better fit for her.

Now she is off with Michelle at Willow Tree Farm for a while to have a baby. So on Friday I loaded up my car, making the 5 hour trek to Midland to visit my “girls” – Jezebel and Sadie. They both spotted me as soon as I got there and starting mugging for treats and love. These two not only look alike, they have the same “love me. love me more. I said LOVE ME.” personality. They want treats and rubs and scratches, and they want them all while sitting in your lap. Imagine two very large needy dogs – there ya go. I almost got smooshed in between two big brown mares several times as they each wanted my full attention.

 

On Saturday I decided to hop on Sadie. Michelle has been riding her a little bit off and on just to give her something to do (Sadie is a PEST when she doesn’t have a job) but not with any regularity. She was so happy to get out, and while she is always polite about it she had a good ol’ time crowhopping her way around the ring. I popped her over a few little jumps for fun and she went WHEEEEE way over them, in true Sadie style. This mare loves to work.

I am back home now after another long drive, missing my girls, but I know they’re in a great place getting the best of care. And I get to see Michelle and her Willow Tree gang again next weekend when they meet us in San Antonio to horse show!

The girls – which one is which?