Absolutely! The last dressage show I went to there were quite a few smaller horses at. My horse Gem is 14.2hh, and I don't feel it affected the way I was judged at all, and we received a 2nd place. The "horse" that came in 1st was a Fjord pony. The main disadvantage I feel I have on Gem is that I'm not that short, and he's not that broad, so proper leg contact can be a bit challenging. But that can be just as much of a problem if you're on a "too large" horse as well, so it's all a matter of proportion

Sounds like you've all been having a great time! Sorry I've been AWOL again, I've been getting in tons of riding, gardening, and playing outside with my son time. Both my dressage and H/J instructor had been really busy until a few weeks ago, and we've been making up for lost time with tons of lessons, plus it's trail season! My weight has stayed the same, but at least I've been pretty active, and drinking plenty of water, though eating too much ice cream! Peta, your show pictuers look lovely, and

I've got to say I can definitely see S&S's point on this one. One year we ran barrels at the draft show in Marshfield, just for fun, and the winning time was 29 seconds. And let me tell you, that Perchie looked like it was running for all it was worth.

Of course I don't mind. I should really be painting my bathroom, and scrubbing Gem (he's got a touch of rainrot), so it makes me feel less guilty about neglecting you guys

Quote: Unfortunately, they did end up buying the other gelding, and I just crossed my fingers for the kid!! Isn't that just the kicker? The kids are the ones that suffer in so many of these cases. And as much as you want to tell them to fire that trainer and/or not buy the crazy horse, you know all it'll accomplish is making you look catty and unprofessional.

My goodness, it sure seems like buying and selling horses really seems to bring the crazies crawling out from under their rocks. Tons of stories here. I'll start with the selling ones, since there are less of those, and I'll see how far I get before I quit typing. Only sold one horse, and that was my mother's Hungarian Warmblood. He was dead broke under saddle, nearly bombproof, and although he was fantastic in crossties, you could not tie that horse to the trailer, or anything directly in front

So much will depend on the your stallions strengths and weaknesses. I'm not much of a matchmaker myself, but there are some good ones on this forum, and they'd be able to help you a lot more with a good conformation shot of your stallion, I'm sure.

LOL, so cute!

Yup, tons of veggies around here! And I'm still at the same weight <sigh> Sounds like you've got a busy summer planned! This was going to be my busy month, but a lot of stuff got cancelled. And I'm pretty much planning on lessoning and hacking until September or so. I hate dressing up!

Adorable pony! Sounds like quite the trooper. And everyone's getting some good productive lessons, which is great. Gem and I had a wonderful hack on Saturday, went with a friend to a hilly park full of birch trees, but had to cancel our parade plans. When I went to hook up the trailer, the truck was making an odd noise, not terribly dramatic, but I'm a huge worrier, so I wasn't about to chance it! So my horse was bathed, and primped, and then turned out to play in the mud. Quite the round of bad