Happy New Year!

When I brought Chrome home after USN in 2024, I knew I had some work ahead of me to have the pair of us ready to be as good as I thought he could be in dressage. Despite the fact that he’s gone back and forth to training since the fall of 2020, it’s a much bigger challenge to keep them home full time when you know you’ll be the only one working the horse.

We had growing pains. A lot of them. It took a while, for example, to find a dressage legal bit in which we got along consistently. It still feels pretty special to me that he ended up in the bit that the first horse we bought for dressage, Kentucky Music Man, showed in for years.

Every show was scary this year. Not because of Chrome, but because of me and my overthinking. I don’t generally get nervous showing. It’s one of the few times where my anxiety doesn’t mess with me, unless I’m having lead issues 🤦🏼‍♀️ I do still feel pressure, though, as I’m a perfectionist. I don’t want to go in the ring and disappoint myself or my horse (because they care… right? 😂😂😂).

In our first actual under saddle class at SHN this year, Chrome was just so perfect. We’ve had a lot of memorable rides in WEC’s sanctuary, and that definitely will rank up there. When we were called out as winners of our 23 horse section, some very happy tears were shed. I didn’t know how we’d be received at SHN, but, at that moment, it felt like a huge success regardless of how it went from there.

It was a ton of work to get to that point. A ton. Most of the year, he worked five days a week. Consistently. I’ve given him a lot of time off in November/December. We’ve done some fun stuff, but no consistent schedule. He earned that time off, and, honestly, so did I.

It is now a new year. Back to work we go. ❤️

PS, a big shout out to the Strides program from Amelia’s Dressage Academy. The exercises and videos got me through the year!