What's Up Wednesday: The one where I tell you my secret

Ok fine. I'm just gonna tell you. I sent the $$$ today, so it's pretty much official... I'd like all of you to meet Pammon!

He's joining the herd as soon as the wire clears, and I can get him a ride up here. He's a 12 year old Swedish warmblood, just imported a couple months ago. He was doing the 1.3M jumpers in Sweden but is also quite happy to jump speed bumps with me.

Also check out this trot! (I'm gonna need to get a little stronger if I have any hope of sitting that...)

So that's my secret! I finally found my jumper! We're going to start off low and slow and get to know each other. But hopefully next season we'll be all over the adult jumpers!

That's the big news, but it's been a horsey filled week over here, so I'll share all of that too. Shiny's new saddle arrived while I was in Florida, so we're getting going with riding and figuring each other out.

17" Butet with a short flap and wide tree, perfect for a pony!

I really got lucky with this saddle. I found it on Ebay and the seller was willing to give me a ten day trial. It's a ten year old saddle, but it's in incredibly great shape. A few scuff marks on the cantle, but the tree is sound, and the rest of the leather is pretty much perfect. Almost like it wasn't used much. And I got it for a steal! Let's hope saddle shopping for the full sized horse goes as smoothly. But I digress... back to Shiny!
She was teaching lessons last year and has a little bit of sourness left over from that. That's ok though, I knew there would be things to work on. She's much happier when I don't wear spurs, but I think I may need to carry a stick. While she's cranky about leg (and sometimes kicks out! naughty!) she's also kind of dead to it. She much prefers a loop in the rein to contact, but I'll allow that until we get the go button installed. You can't try and collect a horse that's already moving backwards. Steering is a little iffy too, but I really think that also goes back to the sticky go button. Despite those shortcomings, she's really a great pony! She's not spooky, and my noisy neighbor really keeps testing that. Him and whoever was target shooting over the weekend. Sheesh. Country living, amiright?! Plus she looks like this, so how can you not love her:

I had a few friends come over different days, and interestingly enough she's far more agreeable when there are spectators. Typical. Ha! Anyway, I love her, and am so excited to get to playing with her this summer.

Rio gave me a little angst this weekend. Saturday when I took him out, he was really lame right front. He wears flip flop shoes, and usually when he looks like that he has a rock stuck under the pad. But I couldn't see one when I checked. So I was mildly panicking that he was surely foundering (though he had zero symptoms really other than being limpy). I decided to let him out in the ring and see if moving around a little might help. He was happy to be out there, and had a lovely roll.

He meandered around a bit but never worked himself out of it. He must have moved some stuff around under the pad though because I found the pebbles under the pad after. They were pretty wedged in there and I was worried about an abscess or stone bruise, but thankfully he's much better now. Phew. Dodged a bullet there. He had his first scrubby tubby of the season this weekend and had his sheath cleaned.

I got zero photos at the boarding barn, but Saturday I got to ride both horses. Eros was perfect (as usual) and I had a nice ride on Fefe too. She was very busy looking around, but never offered up a spook, so I let it be. They were changing the course while I was riding, so I can't blame her for being distracted. What I do blame her for is her manners walking to the barn after! Andrea dismounts in the ring and hand walks her in, so I figured I should do the same. Well. That mare is a sassy girl heading back! I hope she doesn't behave like that for my stepmom. She reared THREE times on the way back, and bucked I don't know how many times. Very bad behavior. I'm told she does the same coming in from the paddock too. Naughty. Nobody died though, so that's still a win I suppose.
Earlier that morning I went to my nieces recital. She played some original music she wrote on the piano. And uh... she's six. Overachiever. Lol. It was adorable.

Sunday I had just Eros at the boarding barn, and then the two kids at home. It was nice to get done fairly early so I could hang outside with the pugs. It was supposed to rain, but it turned into a really nice day.

Artie showing how much he loves hanging with mom... That tongue though!

And then it was time for the first live music night at the lake! And my second lobster roll of the season. (Hey, I don't waste any time when it comes to lobster.) I didn't stay until the very end, but rather got home to do some reading and pug snuggling.

And that's it! Lots of horsey stuff happening around here, and life is definitely getting much busier. I'm really excited for this reset to happen though. The last few years have been tough with everything with Jampy plus Rio's official retirement. Not to mention my failures with Ducky, Romey, and Badger. My confidence was shook, and riding became the exception not the norm. It was kind of a dark time to be honest. I see the light at the end of that tunnel though, and can't wait for what's to come!