The Stepping Stone Horse Show

I haven't posted in a bit because I've been having a streak of bad luck lately. The worst of it was Palmer, my aging golden. He had a bad fall and it's been touch and go this past week but today he could finally get up on his own. I think we are over the worse of it.

But onto life with an ex race horse!

This weekend, Toby and I went to a local horse show. It was a show geared for beginner people in the horse show world. This doesn't mean we are beginner riders, just that we are not experienced at showing. I hadn't been to a big show in probably 18 years. And my horse, Toby, hadn't been to a show in 8 years. So this was a great opportunity for us to get back into the swing of things. And it was a dressage show which Toby has only been working at for 2 months.

I must also divulge that Toby has had issues with trailering. Particularly with slant trailers. So I planned to use my farrier's stock trailer, had another horse from our barn go with us and everything worked like a charm! The stock trailer has a middle divider so we essentially had two box stalls for the horses. We didn't tie them up either. This made for a very happy Toby.

Getting him to the show was my number one goal and we did it! To be able to compete was another goal and to win anything was icing on the cake.

Toby and I competed at the Introductory level and we had a blast. I didn't have anyone there to shoot photos of us when we rode but I did get this one of us afterwards:




And you can see just how actually lazy Toby was in the ring! He wasn't listening to my aids that well but overall, in the scheme of things, he was great:




Toby and I were awarded 2 blue ribbons and then a LOVELY saddle pad from Bad Pony for being the best horse going into dressage as a new career.

Isn't he fetching in it?!







As I've told him - He won the roses!

Post Preakness Odds and Ends

I'm still recovering from The Preakness. What a great race and what a great time I had.

I got to know Dominic Terry a little bit better this past week.




He's an exercise rider for Steve Asmussen and was rooming with my good friend Alex Brown this past fall and winter. I met Dominic when I made a road trip to Woodbine last October. Dominic is the lucky guy who has the privilege to exercise and work Rachel Alexandra! So of course I shot photos of him throughout the week. I'm hoping they will make it to Belmont. I was told that she was feeling VERY good out on the track for her gallop yesterday. She is scheduled to work on Monday afterwhich they will make a decision if she will head to Belmont. We will see!

Slightly off-topic: Yesterday was like Christmas for me! I received a used saddle I purchased on ebay. I purchased an Albion "Style" saddle which is now called their SLK model. It's lovely!





Best of all, it fits Toby beautifully! I think he'll be very happy with this saddle. The leather feels like butter. I know I am happy with it!

Canoodler update: He raced on Sunday at Arlington on their synthetic track. He kept up with the leaders until the last 1/8 mile where he tired. He finished last. I sent an email to his trainer (my friend) and she said the owners want to try him on the turf and she'll let me know when they are ready to let him go. I'm actually quite hopeful from her email. I know he's in good hands as long as he's with her, which thankfully he still is!


And finally, as if I'm not crazy enough, I'm heading to Woodbine to visit my friends there such as Alex, Jen Morrison and Keith McCalmont! It'll be a very fun Memorial Day weekend!

The Preakness

Congrats to Rachel Alexandra!!



I spent my entire day at the track starting at 5am when I was told Rachel Alexandra would walk the shedrow. It's nice to have an "in" with my friends who work for Steve Asmussen!

Here are my photos from the morning - Preakness morning.

My favorite is of Chip Woolley's belt buckle - the trainer for Mine That Bird:




As you can imagine I got a lot of teasing for pointing the large lens of my camera on his belt buckle by Chip Woolley and the other connections of Mine That Bird.

And here is a link to the photos of the post parade from the Stakes Barn and the race.

Preakness Race

Inbetween shooting photos, I was blogging what was going on throughout the day on the Alex Brown Racing website. I was sending updates from my iphone!

Now I'm off to have brunch with some friends who work at Fair Hill.