As I spent a couple minutes this morning moving Elsie from the "Prospects" section of our farm website to the "Sold", I decided that I had better write a quick blog about my girl to celebrate our time together one last time. I need this little bit of closure before moving on with life and looking to the future.
Elsie came to our pasture because China became injured and I didn't have a show horse. Since Sophie had a POA and we were moving into breeding POA's, I decided I needed a show pony too. My friend, Meg, reached out to us with her 2 year old prospect that was at the trainers. We loved the broodmare we had gotten from her the year before so went to look at her at the trainers. I fell in love and we were back to get her a couple of weeks later.
DAYS after getting home we took Elsie to her first show. She had maybe 30 rides on her when we went and knew very little about showmanship, but away we went. This was the show that Elsie's hashtage #thatgraything orginated. That blog is also here. But "that gray thing" did not disappoint. I had amazing rides and by the next show we even won our showmanship class. She never failed to disappoint as our show career continued together.
I don't think a POA show went by that we were high point or reserve high point in some division. Elsie won me buckles, chairs, bags, mugs, bridles, medals, ribbons, trophies, and probably more than I can even remember. There is no way I could give a tally of the number of class wins much less division wins. I do know that she was a 3 time Congress champion and I think, 4 time reserve Congress champion. We won a state futurity class and had several reserves as well. She won me more than any pony I have ever owned or any pony I have ever dreamed of owning could have won me. But she was more than that.
Elsie was my unicorn pony. She healed my heart after China was sidelined and that dream ended (or changed). She taught me what a real western pleasure lope feels like. Through teaching Elsie, I learned more about training horses and finishing horses. I learned how to ride a horse on a draped rein. I learned about ranch riding (and thank goodness for no cows in POA, right Heather?) I learned more about keeping a gray horse clean and a diva pony happy. And probably most importantly, I learned that selling your heart pony can feel like the hardest thing you have ever had to give up but the best thing you could ever do for someone else.
When Jena reached out to me and asked if I would consider selling Elsie to her student, my first response was no. I had a lot more things that I wanted to try with Elsie. We had more goals to achieve. But when Tim and I talked, I knew that I had to at least consider the idea. I can't thank Jena enough for how she handled the whole process. I appreciate her putting up with my tears as I worked my way through letting Elsie go emotionally. She was so understanding that she helped me know I was doing the right thing.
When the day came for Elsie's new little girl, Riley, to try her out I had a flood of mixed feelings. Mostly I wanted Elsie to be the best girl ever and to show Riley and her family that she was the outstanding pony that I knew her to be. But a tiny little part of me was like "maybe she won't be as impressive to them as she is to me and they won't like her". The minute that Riley guided Elsie out to the rail and moved from the jog to the lope I knew in my gut that Elsie was the pony that Riley needed. She had struggled through a whole season with a pony that tried to buck her off every time she asked for the lope. Yet she had not lost her love of all things horses nor her desire to work harder to be better. She was obviously infected with the horse bug.
When her parents told me that they knew that Elsie was the pony for Riley I was a mixture or crazy emotions. Proud, devastated, worried, but mostly so happy for Riley. We have all been there with a horse or pony that we were scared of or didn't enjoy riding. I know how hard that is when horses are what makes your heart tick. I'm so happy that Elsie can be the unicorn pony that her family is looking for. I gave them the jacket I made that said "Obviously a unicorn" and had "Elsie" on the sleeve. They gave it to Riley to tell her that she had a new pony and I don't know if I saw Riley take it off the rest of that day (even though she swam in it as it was at least 2 sizes too big).
Their family was so kind in being respectful of how hard the decision was for me and how much it was hurting to let her go. They were sweet and gave the best hugs. I'm a firm believer in the healing power of a good hug. Their excitement and joy was infectious and helped heal my heart and make the decision that much easier. They were patient and stuck around until after our last class, our last ride together. They gave us a few minutes to ourselves to gather our thoughts after that last ride and then we helped them get their new pony on their way. It was hard watching her new family leave the parking lot with her. It was harder still to walk back to the barn aisle and see her empty stall and then soon after, her empty slot in the trailer. It will be harder still tonight to unload the finished show pony tack from the trailer and bring out the trainer saddle and snaffles.
The saying is "back to square one" when you start back with a training project. Smoothie is kind of like back to square -10. She's doing her best and we will get there. Every pony is different and Smoothie is one that is going to take some time to learn to want to be caught. Once caught she tried to work hard. There is a lot of try in her and she needs a lot of reassurance. But again, we will get there. The hardest part for me has been realizing that I won't be "riding" again for a while. Horse time is going to be spent on the ground for a while now. But saddle time will come again soon and as a good friend reminded me... "trust the process". It will all work out in the end.
Plans always change but for now I'm looking ahead to being on team Riley/Elsie next year and cheering them on from the sidelines. I'm not sure they realized that with buying Elsie they gained a fan club, but it is what it is. They are stuck with us now. Thank you to them for the update that they made it home safe and sound and we look forward to the many happy updates of their new unicorn moving forward.
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