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Introducing "Colorado Lightning" (Lightning for short). Lightning is a 28 year old POA (Pony of the Americas) gelding. He was the very first pony I ever had. I want to say I've had him since I was 6. This pony taught me A LOT. Patience, motivation, how to shake it off, and of course, how to hold on for dear life. We used to do a little bit of everything when we were younger (we loved speed) but I've pretty much outgrown him now. He's still in great shape for being an old man, but I don't ride him too often since he's a little small for me now. He can be super sweet sometimes, but he has also bolted and bucked me off countless times x)

Still love him to death though <3

This was one of my very first times riding him. I still remember it!

And here are some of my favorite pictures. I think I was probably 12 or 13 in these, as you can tell I was starting to outgrow him lol

This was from our very first "show". It was a teeny tiny show but we placed first in showmanship out of a class of ten.

And this is a picture of us practicing speed, back in the golden days <3

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Next up we have Thunderbolt. I got him about a year after I got Lightning (yes, I purposely named them Thunder and Lightning).

Thunder is a 15 year old mini with a rough back story.

When he was barely a year old, he was sold to a family who did not have the space for a horse (even a mini). They kept him in a tiny, dark garden shed with little food and water. It's a miracle that he survived. He was supposed to be for their children. Keep in mind these kids knew nothing about basic horse care. After about a month, they got tired of him and stopped caring for him. They also abused him. The neighbors saw and called my uncle (a vet in the area) who then rescued him and brought him to us. He was nearly blind because he was kept in the dark for so long. At first he was very skittish and would bolt or kick if you got near. With years of training, he is now an amazing show mini. We do all sorts of in hand stuff. Showmanship, in hand jumping, speed, trail, you get it. I would have never dreamed that he would come so far!

(he likes to sick his tongue out lol)

Some if my personal favorite pictures:

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Last but not least, we have the one and only Einstein. This boy is one of a kind. He's a 13 year old hackney with a heck of a personality. I started on him in the middle of 2017 (actually our three year anniversary was on June 6th!!) and he's come a really long way. I don't know a whole lot about his life before, but I do know that he was a somewhat unsuccessful hunter jumper, and when he first arrived, he was skin and bones. He was a handful at first (and still is haha). He'd spook at absolutely everything and would pretty much ignore commands, whether they were with your leg, reins, etc, they didn't exist to him. He'd fly around the arena with his head in the clouds, spooking and bucking as he went. Yes, I did fall off along the way. There were times when I'd cry after riding him. I was close to saying goodbye to him, but he was so freaking cute I just couldn't XD It took months and months to get him where he is now. This past year he finally mastered his western headset and we took home several first place trophies and a few top five ribbons. He can do a variety of things. We do trail, showmanship, pleasure (english and western), bareback, you name it. Of course, he still spooks sometimes and he also enjoys throwing in some playful bucks. But, he is very dear to my heart ❤️❤️

This picture was from our very first show together as a pair. We took third in showmanship!!

And of course, my favorite pictures (and yes, he does have a cone in his mouth!)

They are all so cute! I love that picture with Einstein and the cone!!

Thanks lol

For some reason he adores cones😂

XD

He just wants to be a unicorn lol

Been a while since I last updated this, I now have two new additions to my equine family! :)

15 year old quarter horse cross gelding. Started on him last August and he's come a long way. When I first started riding him, he had no brakes, he just wanted to go go go all the time, and didn't carry himself at all whatsoever. On top of that, he hadn't been worked with in an arena in probably 6 years and was just used as a "hop on whenever you want" trail horse. Now, he has calmed down a lot and is establishing a nice headset. We do a little bit of everything, english and western pleasure, english and western eq/horsemanship, trail, showmanship, halter, speed, and occasionally we'll practice with some little cross rails. Over the winter we went to two warm and fuzzy shows and he did awesome! We got a second in showmanship, a fourth and a third in english pleasure, a third and a second in english equitation, and fifth in halter, all out of good sized classes! Next weekend we're going to another show which I plan on doing showmanship, english pleasure and eq, and western pleasure and horsemanship. So excited!!

Of course, here are some pictures :D

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And here is the newest member of the family, Stormy!

He's 13 year old welsh pony gelding and I'm honestly not too sure what I'm going to do with him yet. He was used in 4-H for a little while but he's bounced from home to home and hasn't had much work the past few years, so it looks like we're going to be doing some groundwork and seeing what he knows :) I'm thrilled to start working with him! This will definitely be his forever home <3

I don't have many pictures (yet) but will add some more soon!

As you can see, he's already made friends with Lightning! xD

These pictures are from February, but Einstein has made so much progress in hunter under saddle!

We went to a day show about two weekends ago. Just did walk trot since it was his first time at this show series. We did showmanship, english pleasure, english equitation, western pleasure, and western horsemanship. We had some really tough competition. Our SMS class had over 20 people and he did AWESOME. By far one of our best patterns. Only the top six placed however, and we probably would have placed if I hadn't forgotten the backup at the end😂 It's okay though, because I was super happy with our performance ^^ Our pleasure classes also had 20+ people and we didn't place in either of those, but he listened to me the whole time and was super relaxed so I couldn't have asked for better rides! Lastly, our eq and horsemanship classes both had over 25 people. We took fifth in english eq and sixth in horsemanship which was awesome considering I wasn't expecting to place out of big classes! Overall a great show and I couldn't have been happier with either of our performances!

Tomorrow we're off to another show at the same place. Doing barrels and down & back on Saturday and Sunday we're doing pleasure classes again but this time we're giving the walk trot canter classes a go. Super excited!!

Another successful show!

This one was double judged and in our speed classes we came very close to placing in the top six, but it was still a ton of fun! In our pleasure classes (showmanship, western horsemanship, and english pleasure) we got two firsts, a second, two thirds, and a fourth. He did amazing for his first time showing at the canter/lope!

Stormy making friends with the barn cats!!

Skippy update: Skippy and I went to a small local show a few weeks ago, the weather was terrible so it wasn't our best day but still ended with a fourth in showmanship, fourth in pleasure, and third in equitation. This weekend we're showbound again - doing both speed and pleasure and it's another double judged show so it should be fun! We also celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday, he's come such a long way since our first ride and I couldn't be happier!

Stormy update: Unfortunately, Stormy has foundered. According to the vet (Stormys been a patient of his long before we bought him) he does have a history of foundering. Luckily, he is in the mend and responding well to the treatment.