Mickey and Lauren both showing the athleticism and team work needed to succeed.

Lauren and Mickey went to Dev’s today for another lesson.  It was the follow up to last week’s lesson and we will have one more next Thursday.  Dev’s parents Terry and Don were there.  Both top riders and competitors in their own right, they are a great support system for the Devereaux Sport Horse riders. 

Don was surprised at how Mickey looked.  Usually a true bay (a brown horse with black mane and tail-as you can see in the picture above), Mickey is growing his winter coat and looks almost black.  Both Don and Terry thought Mickey looked healthy and happy to be back jumping.

Two weeks from today, the Britannia Farm Fall “A” Show will get underway in Katy, Texas.  Mickey and Lauren are officially entered.  We will start off with a few lower height classes: .90 meters (2’11”)  and .95 meters (3’1″) and see how he does.  Lauren will move Mickey into the Eq Center on Wednesday and then show the subsequent days.  It is like an entire village of horses, trainers, riders and their support systems take over the center.    The plan will be to see how Mickey tolerates each round, each day and if he is physically able to keep competing as the fences go up, the courses get tougher and fatigue gathers. While well rested, he is clearly not in his optimum physical shape. 

If we do reasonably well, in that he is jumping well, pretty competitive in his times and not doing stupid things like refusing fences, then we will feel pretty good headed to Zone finals on November 10th. 

Inadvertantly, we may have done a good thing by giving Mickey a couple of months off.   Some horses get ring sour, wear out their legs by overuse and/or just do not want to jump.  The horse under Lauren today at Dev’s was rested, healthy, eager and excited about jumping.  He may just carry those attributes into the ring with him for finals.  And if he is ready for his come back and able to keep the cough at bay, Lauren and Mickey may be real contenders this year.

We are certainly in a better spot than we had anticipated and are thankful. It was terrific to hear the excitement in Lauren’s voice today as she told me about her lesson.  We will wait and see.