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...
One of the big goals this year was to compete at an overnight show with Ellie. I hemmed and hawed a little about which show to choose, but in the end, I decided to head over to Vermont at the beginning of July for what is known as Vermont Morgan Heritage Days . It is a three-day show, with dressage on Friday open to all breeds, in-hand and rail classes (with both open and Morgan only classes) on Saturday, and carriage driving all day Sunday. Just fair warning, there are a gazillion photos in this post! All pro photos were purchased from the show photographer, Lasting Moments Media (you can see her watermark), and some photos are from friends, and otherwise, they are my crappy phone photos haha. Ellie and I left on Thursday afternoon around 1:30 in a nasty 90+ degree heatwave. It was far from ideal, but seeing as I was traveling alone (and needed to find my Airbnb after settling Ellie into her stall at the fairgrounds), I did not want to be doing e...