I've been a horse owner for three months now and I still find myself thinking "I have a horse! How the @#$!% did that happen!?!" Coda and I have been having a great time. Jenn has been working our butts off at our lessons and we jumped our tallest vertical yet at 2'3". Not high at all by horse standards but a mountain to me as I was cantering up to it. We also had a couple milestones pass this month. First off we went on our very first solo trail ride. Just me and the Big Man. Off in the woods on our own. It - was - fabulous. It's a short ride, maybe a half hour loop and right across from the barn. And it's almost impossible to get lost in there if you keep to one side of the bridge. We had a terrific ride with no spookiness or mishaps. Every day that passes I realize more and more what a great horse I have.

So, onto milestone #2. I went on another hunter pace this past Sunday. This time with Claire. She has owned her horse Sierra for 12 years and they go on paces and judged trail rides all the time. We did the Leap Frog division of the pace and what do you know, after an hour and twenty minute gorgeous trail ride, followed by a delicious chilli-dog for lunch, followed by just some nice down-time standing in a field with my horse while he grazed and we waited for the results......Coda and I won our very first ribbon. 10th place overall in our division. Needless to say I was a total goofball about it and yes, it is in fact now hanging outside his stall door.

Have I mentioned I love him?