Day Twenty Four: 30 Day Challenge

Day Twenty Four: Your best riding buddy

My best riding buddy is Shelly, without a doubt.  In fact, she is probably my best buddy period!  :-)  We both own and show Standardbreds; I have Dreamy (and Reva) and she has McKeever Hanover.  They are both 20 years old in 2011 and get along quite well.  Neither like any other horses, but they love each other.  :-)  We joke that they are an old married couple.  We used to show together in 2-gait and Shelly had to be super careful in the ring...if another horse got near McKeever and his girlfriend Dreamy he would pin his ears and go after them.  We normally either stayed really close together in the ring or completely stayed apart, depending on the size of the class, etc.  When Dreamy moved to 3-gait last year, McKeever would watch for her outside the ring while he was showing.  They are adorably cute together and even look similar...although McKeever is definitely more masculine and thicker as he was a stud for many years.

Shelly and I got along easily from the beginning.  Though I do believe at the show in 2006 where we competed together for the first time, she was wondering who the girl was who kept beating her!  LOL!!!  ;-D  We often place first and second, flipping back and forth.  We joke that if one of us has to lose, it might as well be to the other.  :-)  

Shelly is just a few years older than me, we both have one son, and our husbands might as well be twins (because of the way they act)!  We get along very well...we talk every single day (or close to it) or we can go a week without saying a word but neither of us gets angry at the other.  We are both always very busy and understand that in each other.  My husband has referred to Shelly as my wife....ha ha ha.  We joke we might as well ditch the husbands and buy a farm together.  :-)  Shelly and I are always going on horse adventures together and I trust her completely.  I know she's got my back and would be there for me in a heartbeat, and I hope she knows the same is true for me.  We make each other laugh and have a similar sense of humor and TONS of foolish inside jokes.  I wish she lived closer, as she is about 45 minutes from me, and I also wish she showed dressage!  LOL!  We only do the hunter shows and marshal together.  :-)  

We have weird connections that go back before the start of our friendship.  My grandfather bought FW Volo from her grandfather back in the 1970s!  And I taught at the same high school as her father back in 2003, before I ever met her!  Crazy!

There are so many memories between us...the time she showed out of her car at her home farm and tied her horse to my trailer, buying matchy-matchy tack/clothing for marshaling (and generally obsessing over our marshaling outfits), our trip to the National Standardbred show in NJ and many other road trips with our horses which usually involves rain and lots of eating, The Toothbrush Incident aka "Ummm...is this YOUR toothbrush?", PRPL LVR aka purple lovers (not what you think...ha ha ha), "Hey lady, did you know your shirt matches your horse's socks and underwear?", numerous intense rainstorms at horse shows, spraining my ankle at a horse show, the time she hid in the bathroom (stood on a toilet even!) to avoid a certain crazy person and MISSED my dressage rides (!!!!!), loading and unloading all my horse show crap gear in the rain (and she only complains a little.....LOL), her pep talks when I get nervous/discouraged at shows (even though it makes me angry at her at first because dammit she should let me give up!), The Lady with The Tooth, the thousands of times we are laughing so hard that tears are rolling down our cheeks and I am nearly peeing my pants, the times she has stripped in front of my husband and father at horse shows (whoops...), "My Horse Looks Like Breaded Chicken!", "L".....and the list goes on.  :-D

Here are lots of photos!  (Remember, Dreamy has the star...)

SPHO-Maine Endless Summer Show 2007

Standardbred National Show in New Jersey 2008

Marshaling at Scarborough Downs 2008

MHA Maine Event Horse Show 2009 - Sometimes I let her win.... ;-)

Marshaling at the Cornish Trotting Park 2009 - Our horses wanted to graze SO BADLY!

Marshaling at Scarborough Downs 2009

Maine Horse Association Banquet 2009

MHA Ocean Communities Show 2010 - we each pulled a first in the double judged in-hand class!

Marshaling at the Cornish Trotting Park 2010

MHA Maine Event Horse Show 2010

Marshaling at Scarborough Downs 2010 - We are all twins!  :-)

Here's to many more fun horsey years together!  :-)  Love ya girl!