My niece Chantelle and I headed off to Missoula last weekend so she could compete in her first mini-event.  Her horse is my old Morgan mare, Cody, who I have  had since she was a baby…….now she’s 15.  Cody is worth her weight in gold.  We loaded up the trailer thursday night and headed out friday morning to make the 3 hour trip………..upon arriving we immediately stopped at my favorite place… Starbucks, then off to the Missoula Equestrian Park to unload.

A nasty storm was supposed to be blowing in friday night so Chantelle saddled up and went for a quick spin around the cross-country course.

She is competing in the smurf level and the water complex was not part of her course, but she tried it out just for fun.

A little practice over the logs………..

 

Now you may wonder why Cody is worth her weight in gold………..it’s because she’s unflappable, dependable, and you can do whatever you need to do with her.  Corey has packed elk on her, moved cows with her, Lane has hunted on her, Lindsay has jumped her and uses her trail-riding and I use to show her in her younger days !  And just to brag on her a little more at the Morgan World Championships she was 3rd in the World as a 3 year old in Trail and top ten in the 3 year old mares western pleasure 🙂

So Chantelle finished riding and we gave Cody a quick bath just in time before the rain started, I was keeping my fingers crossed that the storm would blow through friday night and we would be ok for saturday.  Saturday morning I peeked out the motel window and no snow, no rain…………cloudy  and windy which we would take over the alternative.

Chantelle warming up for her dressage test.

Cross country next…………

She went clean in her stadium jumping and ended up third……….she rode well and her pony was a star.  We headed home saturday night………..it took about 3 seconds for her to fall asleep in the truck and all I could think was a few more years and you will be driving and I will be sleeping !!

Have a great rest of your week.