And so the season comes to an end.

My thought that this season could be salvaged after our last successful xc schooling was not to be.  I retired Farrah at Training Level at Rocking Horse after fence 12, as she had an uncharacteristic two refusals and was not responding well to the task at hand.  We finished on a good note (the bounce bank) and retired.  Farrah's willingness to work deteriorated to not wanting to clear even 2' (a mere two weeks later) and after a full lameness work up we realized she has ulcers.  Farrah is now looking at almost completing her ulcer treatment and I will soon find out if she is interested in coming back to work.  I sure hope so, as her temper tantrums are of epic legend (rearing in cross ties, not loading, due to ulcer pain) and I will not miss them AT ALL.

This means I need a pony to ride.  I do own a full sized horse, but since I prefer to fall from insignificant heights, that put Lucy in the limelight.  After a month, Lucy is progressing in dressage, albeit slowly.  Lucy, also a pony, is a 13.3 to 14 hand connemara pony mare who is also 14 years old.  To date, Lucy's life involved being started rather late (5) and then having babies.  I imported her from Canada at 7, and Lucy foaled a rather cute bay filly for me in 2009.  Other than that, Lucy's main job is to be quiet enough for my eight year old daughter.  Most of their rides are sans saddle or bridle and occur at the walk.  You can imagine Lucy's mortified look when I put a dressage saddle on her for a lesson with Bill Woods.  I am trying to recall his exact words when he saw us first at the trot.....I think they were mostly geared to not embarassing anyone at our first show.  (Which we did, I will admit it....Dressage score of 45 at Beginner Novice!!!)

At this point, Lucy is actually looking like she is willing to go along with the dressage and we are aiming for a sub-40 performance.  We show in two weeks, so time will tell.  In addition to Lucy in Beginner Novice, I gamely entered my 3 year old in the FEH class.  I should have just late entered, as entering any young horse has been a downfall of mine.  Sure enough, Mia tried to slide to a stop in a field, didn't stop, and took out the fence with her face.  Multiple stitches later and the flap of skin midway between her eyes and her nose is back in place.  The stitches come out the DAY of the class, so we will see if she is a scratch or not.  I do believe Mia will no longer act like a rhino when it comes to the fencing, but what a terrible way to figure out that head first into the fencing is a really Bad Idea.