I was just looking back over some old pictures, mostly from reenactments, there is a movie shoot this summer I may participate in (how cool is that!!??) and they need pictures of us mounted in period uniform, so I was flipping through my photos to see if I had a decent one I liked. Well, didn't find that picture, but did find a bunch of pictures from one of my very first reenactments, where I didn't take Pie, but I took a pony I was riding at the time, a black paint breeding stock pony named Chloe. Goodness how I miss that pony, so so soooo much. I let her get away and I regret it to this day.
She was owned by my trainer, she had three foals during the time I knew her, and I got the privilege of getting to train her first baby, Rosie. But for some reason, I liked Chloe better. In 2006 my trainer "gave" Chloe to me as a project, to ride and work with. She was so fun! She did everything, dressage, jumping, reenactments (mounted shooting), I taught her to pull a cart.
Early summer some friends of my trainer, their daughter took lessons, one of their two old horses passed away, and the remaining horse was going crazy. Unannounced to me my trainer sent Chloe away to be a companion to the other horse. I was sad, but I figured she'd come back eventually. Well, I was working towards taking Pie to the 2006 Western Pony Club Championships in First Level dressage, but 2 weeks prior to the qualifying rally he came up lame, lame lame LAME. So, it was a scramble to find another horse, my trainer said I can give you two options, 1) go and pick up Chloe or 2) you can take this other horse I've been training for somebody. Well, the pros of going and getting Chloe was that she was a horse I knew, buuut she had been out of work for a month and a half, and she was juuust starting to school 1st level movements when she left, the other horse however, while I'd ridden him off and on, he'd been in solid training and would be more adept to the first level demands. I initially decided on Chloe, and I was going to go pick her up, but I got lazy and didn't feel like driving all the way over there to get her (about an hour away), so opted to go with the other horse. BIG MISTAKE. And I regret it to this day. Ended up with a big fiasco with his owners when I did qualify, getting insurance and they had all these stipulations about going to california for the championships, ick. I should've gotten Chloe and dropped down to Training level and gone with her, I had already been scheming how to buy her from my trainer. Well, as karma would have it, the people who had her ended up falling in love with her and bought her. Poo :(
The only positive note, is that about a year later, I finally got to say my final good-bye to her. I was working at a vet's office, and they brought her in for a pre-breeding exam, I guess they had decided to get a foal out of her, which is good, she threw NICE babies. She looked awesome, was very fit and healthy. I keep a picture of her in my truck.
I only hope to one day find another one like her. She was awesome, and I could had done eventing on her, she loved to jump, and while she was only 14.1hh she could JUMP. But she was awesome because she was so versatile, that is my one requirement with my horses, that they be bomb proof, I don't like having a spooky horse, at all, it's no fun. They can be hot, like Chloe was, but not spooky.
Anyway, I gotta run to the barn and clean stalls and ride Mr. Pie himself, and think about little miss Chloe. Ah what a great pony she was.
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