Today I said goodbye to a very special friend. For six and a half years I have had the privelage of having Leo in my life.  Together we travelled many miles, we rode our fair share of dressage tests and jumped fences and obstacles too numerous to count.  We had our ups and downs, our shining moments and our frustrating struggles.  And although it is incredibly hard, fate has prompted changes in our lives and Leo is now continuing on to share his knowledge and companionship with someone else.   

  I bought Leo in 2003 from Cottonwood Riding Club.  I was instantly drawn to his rideability over fences, his braveness and his flashy good looks!  We spent the winter getting to know each other and furthering our training and when show season began the following spring we were ready to head out to the events.  Leo took to the showring instantly, competing the season at beginner novice and always finishing in the ribbons, including an unexpected win at Abbe Ranch.  Leo was brave and bold and just seemed to understand the show environment and knew his job.  By fall of 2004 we moved up to novice level, where Leo continued to jump clean and clear around the courses.

   In spring of 2005 we started out at novice and moved up to training level by summer.  This was our big year of travel, when we attended horse trials all the way in Dallas, Texas and Wichita Kansas.  By now Leo was a seasoned competitor and very professional.   Looking back I know I sure wasn’t the greatest rider back then and I know I didn’t always give Leo the best ride, but he took care of me and did his job well, even if I sometimes happened to get in his way or give him the wrong signals.  He always knew what to do even when I didn’t and he gave me an enormous amount of confidence as we eventually started jumping bigger and more technical fences. As we moved up the levels and the work got more technical and sophisticated we began to get frustrated and at the time I didn’t understand why, although looking back I know it was just my greenness at the level and a lack of good instruction to get us through.  So when I felt like Leo and I weren’t communicating as well as we should I moved on to a different horse and Leo got to take it easy for a while. 

   But knowing he needed something to do but not wanting to give him up, I leased him out to less experienced riders so that he could teach them and give them the same confidence over fences that he had given me.  He is so brave and loves to jump which enables his riders to focus on them and their skills rather than worrying about schooling Leo and after watching him jump around a course with a young pony clubber and completely take care of her as he happily jumped the fences I knew he had such valued experience.

  But as often happens, life caught up to me and financially I wasn’t in the position to keep two horses.  After my time at Windchase I was able to take Leo and work with him and fix some of the holes I had left in his training and realized how much talent was there that I had never tapped in to before!  I was able to communicate and work with him on a much more sophisticated level and I could get so much more out of him.  When I planned to head back out to Virginia I decided to take Leo with me this time.  I was going to sell one of my horses, with no preference as to which, and as fate would have it, Leo was the one that found a new home where he will once again share his experience and teach someone else!  I have had a long journey with Leo and often thought that perhaps he would be in my life until the end of his days but I am happy that he has the opportunity to be a part of someone else’s life.  Be good, Leo, and keep on jumping. 

 

The weather here almost feels like summer, it’s hard to think that it’s only Easter!  But with the nicer weather we’ve all been in full swing, anxiously awaiting the start of our competition season.  We’ve been getting as many horses as possible out in the fields to school some cross country – Gemini was fresh and full of himself as he hadn’t been out jumping cross country since September.  Leo was calm and chill but thrilled to be jumping some big fences – even the big oxer and the coffin in the mares field!  I’m not sure when either of them will get out to their first competition as I haven’t really planned that far ahead, but I’m considering a horse trial in early May for at least one of them.  I will actually have the opportunity to compete at a schooling show next week with a clients horse, so at least I will still be able to get into the show ring with the start of the season!

    With the weather so beautiful, we couldn’t help but have a lovely holiday Easter here on the farm.  Phyllis is always quite generous with the workload on holidays and gives us easy days – taking care of the horses and then enjoying a hack on your own horse is usually the theme on holidays.  We had an even more laid back Easter however, as the horses stayed outside all night long due to the nice weather, which left us with no stalls to clean Easter morning – it’s truly a holiday for the working students when this happened!  So we were all on our horses and heading out to go hacking by 9:30 in the morning, enjoyed the time and then spent the afternoon catching up on some tv while Dawn cooked us an amazing easter dinner with recipes supplied by various members of the house.  We had ham, sweet potatoes, ambrosia salad and a delightful coconut cake for dessert.  Most of us couldn’t move by the end of the meal but we were all plenty satisfied!