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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

Christmas Rides!

I have a tradition to always take a bareback ride on Christmas Day. Not sure why, but I always do. Even if it is only a 15 min. walk around the pasture, I enjoy it. Usually I just have time for Sparky, but this year I was able to ride both mares. Sparky first, of course. She is my first love. :) And I must admit this is the first time I have actually ridden Dreamy bareback...LOL! What a wimp I am! Her withers are not THAT bad.

Here is the view from the round and fuzzy Sparky. Yes her bridle path is waaaaaay overgrown and my inner George Morris screams in protest every time I look at her. But I want to grow out some of it so it is not so long....it nearly goes halfway down her neck! I hear the latest trend in the Morgan horse show world is to NOT trim them back so far.....and of course Ms. Sparky needs to be on top of the current trends, now doesn't she??


Interestingly enough, Dreamy was royally PO'ed that I was riding Sparky and ignoring her. So here she is standing directly in our path and looking very mean. Even cocking her leg! Man, what a baby! LOL! I usually keep the other horse out of the "ring" in the pasture when I am riding, but because I was only going to be on for a few minutes, I just left the other horse free. Too funny!


Sparky was like, "What is up with you Dreamy?" I was laughing and after a few minutes Dreamy went back to her hay pile. Sparky was so soft and warm....I love her trot! And the snow and footing was perfect!

And here I am trying to get a good picture of the two of us afterwards.




Ah well, her nose is not that big. But of course, the camera MIGHT have a hidden carrot in it, so it was nearly impossible to get a shot without the mare sticking her nose into the lens. LOL!
And then Ms. Dreamy gets her turn. She was so good. Her build is funny, in that she is ROUND but has WITHERS! Very hard to fit a saddle (thank god for my Duett, expensive but worth it!) And I have never ridden her bareback, mostly because when I get time to ride I want to "make it count" as a training ride and also because her withers have never looked that comfortable. But I was wrong....they were not that bad and she was comfy to ride!


Such a fuzzy mare! She got the BEST winter coat she has ever had, after five years of owning her! So for now she is a shaggy wild pony. If I can ever schedule a lesson on a day it does NOT snow (Sorry Judy, I am really bad at scheduling and too busy to boot!) I will have to trace clip her, but for now she can be a woolly beast. She'll get a haircut as we get closer to spring, I am sure.


So, after Dreamy's performance, Sparky decides not to be outdone. First she meandered off to Dreamy's paddock and Dengie pile to see if she had left any morsels. Abandoning that, she decided to suddenly gallop FULL TILT at us out in the pasture section. Dreamy was being SO GOOD.......tensing up but not doing anything.....like she was saying, "OK Mom, do you see how GOOD I am being while my friend here is roaring around the pasture? I really COULD dump you and take off with her, but see what a nice mare I am!"
I was laughing so hard that it was difficult to take pictures. Here is the LOOK AT ME Morgan trot.....I thought I got a better one....where she looks like a park horse. Oh well.


Then the gallop! At almost 27 years old, I would say she is feeling pretty darn good!



But then she started running right AT Dreamy. Not cool. So I yelled at her and she stopped her foolishness. But then she decided to follow us around the entire field. What a weird horse! :D



And here is me and my mare. :)



Again, hard to photograph, but at least she was not trying to eat the camera! LOL!


Comments

  1. aww! What a great tradition! I love it. I used to board at a barn where we all had to come out and ride in the first snow of the year. My crazy TB who had not been ridden in several weeks and I were the entertainment as everyone else walked calmly through the fields. It was fun though. And a good traidion. I LOVE the pictures of both girls! And my trainer always said that it was okay for horses to be jerks when you are riding in the snow because at least the landing is soft :P

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