Cob Jockey

This pony.

We had a jam packed weekend last weekend and I just can't say enough good things about how much heart he showed and how patient he was. First, I drove over to Cincy to pick him up and bring him home, and had a lesson with my GP trainer.

Ah, the rare unmounted picture of us both together, in which our collective vertical challegedness is truly visible

Then we hustled him onto the trailer and went straight to the HHP, where I bathed him immediately. The (literal) second he was dry, we showed in-hand, first at 6pm and then after he had eaten dinner and probably fell asleep, we had to hustle the poor guy back out of his stall on the Dressage side of the complex at 10:30pm for the Get of Sire class, where he and his sisters represented his late sire.

The next morning he turned in a fantastic Dressage test at the Dressage show:

Look at me sitting up and not pulling! Also, new show jacket alert.

And then I walked him back across the complex to the Welsh show where he showed in three English Pleasure classes, was the English Pleasure C/D Champion in a ride-off, then won Ridden Cob and took reserve to a cute Section B with a kid aboard in the Ridden Welsh Championship, both of which require a hand gallop. Historically, he and I haven't been very good at the hand gallop. The poor guy was so tired after all he had done that day, but I managed to get him jazzed up and his tired body and big heart gave me the best hand gallops he's ever done in Ridden Cob.

Feet and hair flying everywhere

And can we talk about the halt he gave me at the end of the hand gallop?

Through it all, he was his happy, patient self. There have been times over the past couple of weeks where I've been sorely tempted to find a way to keep Aeres and lease Connor out just based on the fact that she is so much better suited for Dressage than he is. 

But this weekend reminded me that there are things that are more important than scores, and what Mary told me all those years ago still rings true, that I need a horse with a sense of humor. And that amateurs have to "buy the brain first". And that I'll cheerfully take a hit on my "Gaits" collective score forever if it means keeping this cuddly, happy, ears always up, cheerful, game-for-anything pony in my life. He just makes me smile the entire time I'm with him from beginning to end.

Also very snuggly to friends-that-are-actually-family that are going through tough times and really need some pony therapy <3

I will leave you with my favorite story of the weekend. I was showing some of Lisa's other ponies at 10:15pm on Friday night and needed someone else to get Connor from his stall maybe a quarter mile away at the Dressage end of the show complex. I sent my mom over, but it was pitch black out and she had no idea where his stall was.

"Connor!" she stage whispered in the dark. And I was tickled but not surprised to learn that he nickered when he heard her call his name and that's how she found his stall <3

Mom and pony selfies

We finished the weekend dropping him off in Cincinnati again, and it was never harder to leave him, but also never easier. He's officially never going anywhere, so I'm excited to see just how good he can get with GP trainer.