A little bit of inspiration

It doesnt take much to get my thoughts running. You know those those late nights in bed where you cant sleep so you think of all these random questions and have deep thoughts about your life and where you are headed? As I sat and watched rider pilot their horses through they dressage tests at Devonwood (super duper gorgeous dressage facility that we are lucky enough to have just over an hour away!)  all I could think is that I really believe 3rd level is doable for pony and I! It will NOT be easy to get there and it will take time but I dont see why we cant get there. The big warmblood and the big name trainers will always beat us at the big recognized shows, even at the lower levels, but it would be amazing to be able to take my fat little black and white pony to a big fancy dressage show and show people what he can do. My biggest problem is that for the past year pony and I have won almost all our tests and scored as high as 74 % so going from that to possibly not placing and getting lower 60's is kind of a blow to my competitive ego ;) In reality I just need to get over it. No one expects him to go out and do 2nd level even so if the least we do is go out, have fun, educate/show people that these horses are not just pasture ornaments, and of course put in the best tests we can I will learn to be happy with any color ribbon. Plus... if we make it to 3rd level we could do a really fun musical freestyle!! Alanna is so generously coming to tape pony and my lesson tomorrow night which will be really fun to watch.

On the Tolo front he is doing awesome! He has gone on his first solo walk down the road off the property, worked a little outside in the hay field, and is schooling all 1st level stuff. He is becoming really fun to ride and is a complete different horse already! He is making it really hard to ride Mystic though. I had totally gotten used to Mystic gaits and 'pony' movement. Tolo has really nice effortless more uphill gaits that are really nice and easy to ride so when I get on pony I feel all discombobulated. They really are complete opposites under saddle!

Since he is doing so good I am listing him for lease (with option to buy that way I can monitor who he is going to better) now. I really dont have time/energy/money to do both these boys justice and Mystic is my priority. Alanna came out tonight and got some video and pictures so I have current ones to post. Even though Tolo isnt costing me as much as Mystic it is just that much more money being taken away from showing pony. And of course all the shows I want to do are hundreds of dollars (sadly we will most likely not be able to do another 3 day this year...) and I really have my eye on doing our first recognized dressage show in October, the last one of the season! Really hoping to make it happen :)

Preview:

Having a friend with a fancy camera = millions of beautiful pictures of my boys!