So much pony time these past few days! On Thursday I went to work super early so I could fit in a half day of work and still get to Trainer’s by noon for a dressage lesson.

I know I already said I love Red, but for real… I love Red. He really makes it possible for me to work on myself, and boy is there a lot of work to do.

This lesson was definitely better than the first one, but still… damn… I constantly see so many things I want to fix. Dressage is so freaking hard. Riding a fun little horse like Red sure helps though.

Saturday morning I drove a couple hours to meet a friend at Pine Hill for some XC schooling. She brought her giant (no joke, 18h+) baby warmblood along for me to ride. He’d never been out XC schooling before and I’d never ridden him before, but aside from some general glee (“wheeeeee this fun!”) and typical easily distracted baby brain, he was great. He’s super brave about the jumps and had no problem with anything I pointed him at.


He wasn’t totally sure he wanted to get in the water at first but after a few patient minutes he waded in, realized it was kinda fun, and then had no problems coming back through after that.

He even conquered the big mound

and loped very nonchalantly over the Novice trakehner.

Up/down banks were no problem either. This guy could be a pretty cool eventer for someone, he thinks Novice jumps are a total snooze fest. Even though he’s giant he rides like a pretty normal sized horse (aside from the fact that you’re like 50 feet off the ground) and doesn’t have a heavy way of going.

It was also cool to get to ride him because he’s by Valentino Z, my favorite stallion ever. Although I’ve ridden V several times, this was my first time riding one of his kids!
I literally went from 13h pony last weekend to 18h warmblood this weekend. And yes, no doubt the pony was harder.
On Sunday afternoon I made the trek out to the rehab place to see Henny. As I was standing there watching him graze I just couldn’t help myself and hopped aboard. I needed to just sit on my boy.

Once he got tired of grazing he made a beeline for the trail behind the barn and took me on a powerwalk all around the property. He seemed happy to be out and about, and after 2 weeks of mostly being cooped up in a stall, I don’t blame him. I indulged him and let him meander around wherever he wanted until he got his fill.
I sure do miss seeing my boy and riding him all the time. It’s been so awesome to get to ride all these nice horses and really work on my riding, but for me there’s only one Henny. Nothing else is quite the same.

Hopefully just two more weeks. Fingers crossed…





Ooooh, that Valentino Z baby is a looker! So glad that Henny is halfway to coming home, and that you’re keeping busy in the meantime 🙂
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i love that baby horse but would be scared of heights to crawl about him. But he is adorable (If 18 hands can be that LOL). Love the stall sign too.Stuff like that makes me happy as well. (I am a dork i know) I love Henry Chance HA!
Looks like you are keeping extremely busy! SEE YOU IN 3 days time! YAY
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ugh TOO scared of heights to crawl ABOARD him. Bad typing day 🙂
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It was getting off that was the tricky part.
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Aww, his stall sign really is totally cute for some reason …
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That is just too giant. I’d need a crane to get one. You actually don’t look entirely like a child on him though, so I guess that’s something.
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He’s really not that wide, he’s just soooo leggggyyy and loooonnngggggg.
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Swish swishy giant baby tail! He looks like a fun guy.
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I went from owning a 17hh TB to a 14hh pony…it was a hilarious transition. I felt like I didn’t know how to ride for a while. You definitely learn a lot when you get on a bunch of very different horses! Looks like you’re using your down-time wisely.
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Gigantor baby horse!
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Happy you got to hop on Henry! My guy was lame from June to the beginning of this month, I rode a lot of horses, far fancier than him, honestly, but none of them felt like my guy! I love it when you find a horse that’s just special like that.
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Thank you again. Baby dinosaur really appreciated his outing and so did his mom. Haven’t had that much fun in a long time. Baby dinosaur heads for the Ashley Adams clinic this weekend. He is going to make someone taller than me a great horse.
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Ha so ever since I started hanging out with Charlie literally everything else looks tiny. But yea. That’s still a big horse lol. He looks like so much fun! I can only hope Charlie feels similarly on his first xc school!
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Such gorgeous horses 😍😍😍
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Giant baby horse looks SO FUN! I’m glad you’re still getting to have fun while Henry is enjoying the spa. I can’t believe he was calm enough to wander around bare back on after all the time off. Though I suppose all that aqua-treading helps. Hope he’s home in two short weeks!
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That sign does sort of look like something a kid at camp would have. It is strongly adorable! Can’t wait for him to be back with you.
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I love how he makes those jumps look so teeny
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