Mare, 2017, e. Ulk Dete ue. Poetic Justice ee. Heartbreaker
Penny, as she is called, is honestly the bravest, most ambitious, careful and sensitive horse I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Having that said, she is the only horse that I have ever educated myself from a green youngster myself so having that connection with her could be a contributing factor to my feelings for her and the way we communicate.
We bought Penny when she was 3 years old and until that point she had not done any work of any kind. Her breeder did an amazing job of raising her and she was used to humans, was used to the farrier and walking on a lead but didn’t have any experience working in the arena or with any type of tack.
After acclimatizing to the move we started working with her and as I said, she has been a dream to work with from the beginning. She’s very smart and if you practice something one day and can’t quite get it right, as soon as you get up the next time it’s just there. Like she has practiced in her sleep.
In summer of 2021 when she was four she got to go away on summer vacation for two months. After she came home she was severely overweight and we started over a little bit. We had our first jumping lessons and to be fair, it did not really click. Then unfortunately she fell ill with colic and the second time she had to have surgery. Luckily the surgery went well and rehabilitation was very straight forward. In April of 2022 we were back on track again, having lost more than 6 months, and we began taking lessons again.
After losing all that weight she had in the summer of 2021 her approach to jumping became completely different. Now she had an ease and strength in her body that she did not use to have which resulted in her being much more careful and ambitious. This also meant that we had to stop and think before each jump but keeping at it and keeping the jumps low the first few months eventually we (she) realized that you can actually jump a fence even if you haven’t stopped before it at least once and realistically they are all pretty much the same.
In July of 2022 we went to our first competition where we had a clear round and we now jump 80 and 90 cm classes comfortably.
The goal for 2023 is to keep developing and the ambitious goal is to start 110 cm and participate in the Swedish Championship for young ponies in October. After that it will be time for Penny to find a new rider who can value and treasure her as much as I do and be able to compete, which I can’t since I’m over the allowed age limit. My goal for Penny is of course that she will be able to take her rider to both national and international competitions and participate at the top levels and I’m frankly happy that I won’t be the one flying over those heights with her because I’m scared of heights.