One Year On

Time flies...a year ago I was driving home from the worst show ever and really feeling sad and discouraged. I had made the decision to stop attempting to seriously compete in dressage with Bridget (for both of our mental well being) and was pretty down and out about that.

Tiny baby Sophie and her mama. (This story subtitled "Baby ponies make everything better" :)

While I was beyond excited to be bringing an almost 2 year old Sophie home from that same trip to Vancouver, it was bittersweet given my decision with Bridget. It felt like it was going to be forever until she could take over for Bridget and I could potentially start to get my riding goals back on track. I was second guessing my decision to buy a youngster rather than something I could just start riding.

Walking the pony everywhere last spring.

A year on? Zero regrets. Everything has worked out as it needed to. Yes, I very much miss my lessons and showing and having dressage and eventing related goals and a full schedule at a competition barn.

March 2018

March 2019. She's grown a little over 2 inches in the past year. Still looking like there's room for more, too!

My riding feels quite rusty these days. Despite still spending many hours a week in the saddle, lessons have been infrequent and I'm noticing it. But, now that I'm looking at starting Sophie in a few months and organizing appropriate coaching and schedules,  it's kind of surprising how quickly the year passed and how used to being independent I have become. I enjoy problem solving all things horses and so, while some of the technical aspects of my riding have been lost, I feel like I've made great improvements on the horsemanship side of the equation since I've had less of a support network and been forced to think for myself a little more.

So cute. So happy.

Of course, it helps that the pony I ended up with is Sophie. I'm so glad I took a chance and bought her sight unseen - she's got the most fantastic outlook on life, is plenty athletic, and I think has all the makings of my dream pony (minus the unfortunate palomino color, of course...I'm still not quite on board with it :)

I'm looking forward to many more years of Sophie, and no matter where this unexpected detour takes me, I don't think I'll ever have any regrets about purchasing this particular baby banana pony.