Talk about being neglectful. I haven’t touched this blog since last July! Crazy, I know. I think I might be doing something with this again this summer, but no guarantees.

Looking at the old entries of me talking about Val just makes me laugh. Valerius is no longer (and really never was) a teddy bear. He’s a very fit horse who’s affection toleration level is pathetically low, but I love him just the same. He’s got a stubborn streak, and the ability to undulate his body with mini-canter “strides”/rears/bucks, which is actually pretty silly looking and feeling.

Honestly, he’s the farthest thing from what I’d thought I’d get when I bought a horse. I wanted something fairly tall, probably some kind of warmblood, and bay, or, if the universe was with me, a beautiful dapple gray.

And really, sometimes life just likes to let you know exactly how poor a judge we are of our own wants and needs. Val’s essentially got “perfect first horse” branded on his attractive, blue-eyed noggin.

He was kind and forgiving when we first got him, mostly because he was fat, out of shape, and not really trained. His enjoyment of life and spark has increased, making him a slightly more challenging horse to ride, but still Valerius, and still mostly kind and forgiving. And he enjoys jumping.

And the PFH quality my mother likes the most? He has a good set of brakes.

Well, thought I’d finally post some pictures of my “pony” He went to a dressage schooling show about a month ago, and won two blue ribbons with my instructor riding him! There was a really good profesh photographer there, and she took some great pictures. You can see them on her site, here: Pictures of Val

Anywho, Val’s a 15.2 hand bay paint gelding. He’s got the sweetest disposition, but he can truly act like his namesake- Valerius Magnus, a pretentious vampire from some of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter books—from times to time. For the most part, he’s just a big teddy bear ;P

Next time around, I’ll be able to ride Val in a show. Sure, we won’t place as well, but we’ll try our best and have a good time. I might be doing a schooling show at Long View horse park, an eventing one. That would be so exciting! It’s in late August… it all depends on if my jumping would be solid enough by then.

I can hardly believe that school starts in about a month. I’m really ready for this year, though. I’ve got lots of interesting, challenging classes on my schedule. It should be rather interesting having a horse with the increased work load, and then adding a job on top of all that when I turn 16 in November!

That’s all I’ve got to say for now