TOA Blog Hop: Shining Star

I'm still contemplating my 2014-in-review post, so have an easy post, courtesy of The Owls Approve Blog Hop to tide you over.

Let's talk about the biggest achievements your horse has accomplished. I'm not talking about you as a rider - I want to know what your ponykins has done to make you proud. Is there a glorious satin collection, did he/she figure out some dressage movement that took months to learn, or are is it just a great day when your butt stays in the saddle? It's not all about shows or the things that people see.

She's my 50-mile endurance pony. She successfully did a sport that not many horses can do, and even fewer still within her breed. She's definitely got "unlikely endurance candidate" stamped on her, but she still did it...200 miles worth, with three other pulls, only one of which was about her.

Above and beyond that, she completed the Man Against Horse 50-miler. I could not be any more proud of my less-than-14-hands of Go Pony than I was at the finish of that ride. She reduced me to tears as she strode proudly across that line, nearly 12 hours after we had started that morning. Didn't matter we were the tail-end of that pack...we had conquered the trail that had thoroughly whupped up the previous year...in her mind, we had won.

As sad as I am that she's now retired, I'm happy I was able to give her the years of endurance that I did, because that is where her heart is happiest.