I really don't know what all to say about him. He is such a superstar, so adorable.
On Sunday, Jen and I took Joey and Luke to Stone Gate Farm's mini trial. We were both entered in the intro division - Jen in intro horse, and me in intro rider. The intro divison consisted of the USDF intro test A, 9 stadium jumps no higher than 12", and 8 XC Jumps no higher than 12". It was a blast.
When we got there, Luke got to chill a little bit while Joey went and did dressage. When I was done watching Jen, I lunged Luke. He was falling asleep...trying to eat grass and trot at the same time, which doesn't work so well! I tacked him up and hopped on, because I wanted plenty of time to warm up. He was very tense, so it must be me. I sang the "Doe, a deer, a female deer" song to him. You know, the one from Mary Poppins? Give me a break, I was nervous!
We walked down the big hill to the dressage rings and warm up and started trotting around. He tried to leap into a canter a few times, but we stayed under control. They were running ahead of schedule, so we ended up riding about 15 minutes early. I probably should have used that time to warm up more, but I was afraid he would just escalate.
Our test wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but we DID it, and that's what counts! Down centerline to start was actually pretty nice, and this year we actually came to a complete halt for our first salute. He wasn't so sure about the brightly colored jumps beside the dressage arena, so there were lots of rubbernecking moments. Our trot circles both had some canter strides in them, but we did have some nice moments too. Not sure what our final score was, but hey, I didn't come off, and that's gotta count for something.
We had about an hour break before stadium, so I untacked him and let him eat grass and drink water for a while. Luke is funny about water, and usually won't drink away from home. Sunday was no different.
We headed down to warmup for stadium. Jumped a warmup crossrail a few times, he was so cute. The footing was bad, so he politely came down to a walk on his own accord, and walked over it, and then picked up a cute little trot.
When I went into stadium, the fatal error occured. I somehow managed to enter through the finish flags instead of the start flags, and was completely oblivious. We jumped the whole course clean though, although we got a little lost between 3 & 4. So I was E'd, but they let me do cross country, which was nice.
Our XC course was nice, albeit a little fast. He would. not. slow. down. He came back to me for the jumps, and didn't look at anything, just popped over it, but the XC starter thought that he was "a bit out of control" It's the OTTB in him.
All in all, we had a very successful day. Dressage left a lot to be desired, but Stadium and XC were clean even if they weren't pretty. I was very proud of my ponee..he's come so far.

I feel kind of silly writing this, not knowing who’s going to read it :) But I thought that it would be a good way to chronicle Luke’s progress, especially over the summer, since our show season is just getting started! Even though this is Luke’s blog, I’ll occasionally post about Jodi, my first horse and the love of my life. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this, you already “know” my boys, but I’ll put up quick bios for each of them.
Jodi - Jodi is a 24 y/o red roan QH gelding. His registered name is Dial Jet Jodi, and we’re still trying to come up with a good show name for him. Currently in the running are “No One Like You”, “Aged to Perfection”, and Jen & Melissa’s current choice…. “I Cut Corners”. Jodi came to me at the beginning of my freshman year of high school. It was bittersweet, because I’d dreamt of owning a horse my whole life, and it was finally made possible by my grandpa introducing me to his neighbor, who found us Jodi. However, the week before Jodi “found” us, my grandpa passed away. I’ve always wondered what he would think of Jodi. Jodi and I have done everything together, from bareback trail rides, to county fairs, to Christmas parades. And I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every minute. He has a forever home here, and a happy retirement.
Luke - Luke is a 7 year old thoroughbred gelding. His registered name is Here Comes Luther, and his show name is Keep On Dreaming. Luke was a racehorse for the first few years of his life, and a very bad one at that. I bought him straight off the track at the end of his 5 year old year. He had run 14 times, and the closest he came to winning was one 6th place. Training Luke has been a huge challenge, but he’s a joy to be around, and he’s taught me so much. Our goal is eventing, and we’re slowly but surely reaching it. Most importantly though, we’re learning along the way.