August 26, 2019

One of our games friends has been off for military schooling for the past year at the Citadel in South Carolina. He is home briefly and to give him the chance to see his games friends and take his pony for a spin Stacey set up a one day gamblers choice pairs. Sadly on Friday Coltin was diagnosed with a couple stress fractures and could not ride. That’s a hard break.

The rest of us still had a fun day catching up with him and riding our ponies. We had two heats of O24 pairs, including myself. I was paired with Rachel – making a games come back after a several year hiatus – and in the second session I was paired with Ashtyn.

I was freshly home from the 2019 MGAA International Trip and has not been on my pony since MA4, for three full weeks. If I had been on my old pony Poe or even trusty Simon I would have known what to expect. But this is the first time since I purchased Possum he has gone without riding for anywhere near that long so I went in with nervous expectations. But I am happy to say I was very pleasantly surprised. He was fantastic. He retained all of his games training and the new calm he exhibited at MA4! He even moved out!

He even made the trip as the only pony and stood tied to the trailer for several long periods of time all on his own. This was something else he needed work on so I am very pleased I was able to give him this challenge and that he did so well at it.

The O25 riders

Now I really need to focus on the flat work to get balance and flexibility to the right and work on him carrying himself straight.

Paxton and Dexter built a volcano. She’s standing in the lava there like a champ. They were digging all day. Dexter said he would dig me a hot tub for $40 and 99cents and a pool for $100 and 99cents. Plus meals. Sounds like a deal to me!

It was a really fun day. I hope we can do some more in the future. It’s such a good opportunity to work on skills and just have fun.

Here is a very brief clip of O25. I just love the cheering and the ohhhs, and ahhhs.

The open riders