This week’s “A View From My Horse” photo is from Jocelyn, and was taken back in September of this year. It sounds like this pair does almost everything; eventing, dressage, and even endurance riding!
As a side note: this “ears” column has been more popular than I ever could have imagined when it first started, as of now there are over 75 “ears” photos still in line to be published. I have received a few e-mails from people wondering why its taking so long for their photos to be published, so there’s the answer! By all means keep sending your photos in, just realize that it may take some time for them to be published.
Send photos to: [email protected]
This photo was taken on Labor Day this year, as I rode my mare Valerosa (“Val”) on the roads around South Woodstock, Reading and West Windsor VT, pretty close to GMHA, with which many of you are probably familiar. This is a view of Mt. Ascutney that we both really enjoyed. It was a perfect day to ride and we were out doing about 16 ½ miles in preparation for our first 30 mile competitive trail ride! Val & I have been eventing for 2 years and we did the Novice 3DE @ GMHA in August. Since she got so fit training for that, a friend of mine recommended trying a CTR. I do Ironman triathlons and marathons and Val loves to be out for hours, so we thought we’d give it a shot! I grew up in Mass. and evented from the time I was about 12 until I left for college. I went to Arizona State and was a working student (no horse or money!) and ended up switching to dressage since eventing is pretty scarce there. I bought Val 9 years ago, as an unstarted 3.y.o. while still in AZ, to be a dressage horse. We moved back to Mass. about 5 years ago and started trail riding (which there also was not much of in AZ), and then I got bit by the eventing bug again so I decided to see what she thought of jumping. My first XC lesson was almost exactly 2 years ago and I got bucked off at the first fence! Thankfully, with some help from several great trainers, we’ve both improved a lot since that day and are really enjoying it!! Turns out we are both eventers at heart.
~Jocelyn
