I had many great horsey experiences in 2019! I am really pleased with how the year went overall; nothing is ever perfect, but both horses are sound, happy, and healthy, which is really what matters to me. Some of my 2019 goals were met easily or with lots of hard work, and a few of them were utter fails haha. C'est la vie! Let's recap! Happy, health, sound Both mares are doing well in this regard! Dreamy will be 29 this year, and while she definitely shows signs of her age at times, she overall looks and acts much younger than she really is! Ellie has really matured this year, filling out as well as mentally becoming more comfortable in her own skin. As she will be eight this year, I feel like we have moved through the baby phase. having this photo shoot was definitely a highlight of 2019! Continue lessons with Beth and Babette This goal was met and then some! I took almost weekly dressage lessons with Beth and monthly jump lessons with Babette. Thanks to the
Ellie and I competed in our fourth and final SMDA dressage show this past Saturday. I will be honest, I choose to do this fourth one in order to gain our final year end scores, so I choose to ride Intro B and C again. After showing at Training 1 back in August, I knew I wanted to move up, but I also realized that if I just did one more SMDA show at Intro, I could be eligible for awards. It seemed silly not to qualify, as we have worked too hard this year not to. But I also wanted the opportunity to ride Training 1 again in a show environment, instead of having to wait until next spring. Because SMDA does not allow riders to compete at Training level if they are also riding Intro A or B, I had to asked permission to ride "HC", which is an abbreviation for hor concours, the French phrase that means riding without actually competing for a ribbon. Thankfully, the board gave me permission and I signed up for all three tests. It did not seem like two little Intro test and T