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Dear Frederika, George , and Robin...just wanted
to let you know how Polka is doing. She started driving last summer,
just around the house, because our bugs are so bad. During the
winter, she was driven around the pastures occasionally, but mostly
ridden because she is so much fun under saddle!
This spring she drove in her first show and won
all six classes that weekend! Oh, I was so proud of
her! She has continued to be the high point driving
horse at the next two shows, winning 11 out of 12 classes!!!
The class that she got second in was reinsmanship, so it was my
driving, not her trying!!!!!! There is one more show to go, but I
think she already has enough points to be the circuit driving horse
champion!!!! Every judge has made some kind of very positive
comment, they all want to know her breeding! ( Nighmusic won the
circuit championship last year, but she is very glad to let Polka do
the work this season, hehe !)
Last weekend, my Morgan driving friends talked me
into going to the Old Dominion Morgan Show at the Virginia Horse
Center in Lexington, Virginia because they were having an open
driving show. It was blazing hot and poor Polka was in the hot
trailer for 7 hours with her Morgan buddy. When she finally got off,
I was so worried about her. Her head was hanging and she was really
pooped. Her longest trip since coming from Ohio has been 40 minutes
so this had to be scary, and it was soooo hot. We cold hosed her(
normally she hates cold water, has to have warm) but she stood there
and slowly recovered somewhat. After putting her in her stall (they
have those open mesh panels) and blowing a big floor fan on her, she
started to look like the Polkie again! Our plan had been to bring
tack and ride in all the arenas before the show, but I wanted her to
rest for a while, and a giant thunderstorm system came in and it
rained all afternoon and night, so the only sight seeing we got to
do was hand walking early the next morning before the show started!
I had no idea what to expect! The arena was outside with a hard base
and screenings, so there weren't puddles, instead it was this
homogeneous gray soup that was about 4 inches thick!!!!! After all
our brass polishing and feather whitening, we were covered in greasy
gray stuff after one lap of the arena...it was sort of like fox
hunting!!!! The first class was turnout and Polka got second place
to a friend with a fancy Friesian complete with phaeton and
groom....oh, I was proud! The judge came up and said, " What a fun
horse!" Yes, she is, hehe!!!!! The second class was Novice Working
and she got a blue! She felt like an accordion!!! The third class
was open Reinsmanship, yikes, not my favorite! In the class with me
were three friends and they have all been champions at Walnut
Hill....uh oh...! After the rail work, the judge described what she
wanted for the individual tests, while all the carriages lined up at
the end of the ring. Usually they ask for a figure eight, halt
,back, and salute, but this one asked for a working trot to the
rail, slow trot with reins in left hand and whip held up in right
hand, circle to left one handed, then go down centerline, walk,
halt, back, and salute! Holy cow, I thought I'd heard her wrong! I
was last in line, so I had plenty of time to hope that we didn't end
up back in NC! Anyway, that Polka had been watching!!! She
did it all ,what felt like perfect to me , and won the class!!!!
It was one of those life moments that you never forget !!!!! Go,
Polka, girl!!!!!!!!! What a day!!!! What a Polka!!!! We waited
til the next morning early to drive home when it was cooler and she
did fine on the way back! Thank goodness! Gail
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Farms
