The first show of the season is under our belts! Perfect, as always, the Tampa Charity Horse Show was a blend of exquisite weather, good times and unbelievably competitive classes. And I just had a ball. It’s so nice for me to have my friends meet my trainers, and I love that they get to see just what it is that has taken up so much of my time for the past 15+ years.

They don’t really get the organ music, but when I take a second to think about it - I don’t really get it, either. C’est la vie.

I showed my three gaited mare, Callaway’s Naughty And Nice, my gaited pleasure horse, Billy Deluxe, my hunt seat horse, Jolly Mon Sing, and my amateur road pony, Regal’s Prime Rate LF. I couldn’t be happier with all of them, honestly. So many kinks were worked out last week!

Billy Deluxe I am especially proud of, since we were far less into the judge’s stand than usual. In our qualifier, we had some bobbles, but in the championship it was smooth sailing. You know when you’re in the warm-up ring, and you have a list of about ten ways to fix what it is your horse is doing to be an ass, but you only have time to very, very quickly employ one of those methods? It’s a Rubik’s Cube horse, and your brain gets tired trying to anticipate their every move and stay two steps ahead. He’s an angel from heaven but he is totally a puzzle. Granted, he could have just decided to behave himself, but I’m going with our teamwork game being super strong.

I also showed a Fell pony for the first time, which was hilarious, and also more difficult than I had anticipated. Huntsman Blackthorn (is that even his name? I only know him by Thorny) is my trail pony; we fart around on the farm, exploring, chasing cattle, singing every David Bowie song we can fit his name into (i.e. TAKE A LOOK AT THE THOOOORNMAN BEATING UP THE WRONG GUY or GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR THORN, etc.). Making him set his head and behave according to a loud, phantom voice proved to be quite exciting for Thorny. He kicked at his trainer, Nichole, he kicked at Lucky Martin on his Friesian, he pinned his ears and ran off the rail. I should have been mad but it was literally the cutest thing ever (one of the many reasons I would make an absolutely awful horse trainer). Out of my two hunt seat mounts that week, he was easily the naughtiest.

Which brings me to St. Jolly himself, the elephant-unicorn hybrid I obsess over. The classes were large and they were deep, and there was a gorgeous rescue lined up right next to him! Positively dreamy. R.H. Bennett at Richfield Video was kind enough to give us a larger platform to talk about the hunt seat division, and Jolly was in attendance the whole time. If you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out and share it! Tammy, Jolly and I are trying hard to get hunt seat into Louisville.

And finally, I want to send a big thanks to everyone who stopped by my jewelry booth, Luna Avalon. Because of you, I was able to donate 20% of sales to Fairview Farms. You guys make me proud to be a part of this industry.

See you all at Pro-Am!