Just Smile.

"Dang, I got a nice pony."

Yeup, that is what I keep saying to myself after my lesson earlier. For once, I feel like I can successfully ride and train a horse. Bryce is just a star and makes me smile. He is doing his job and doing it well (Finally)!

He had one fault today- for the first time ever in his h/j career, he knocked a rail. I rode him to the perfect spot but he just hung his legs. My trainer puts carpet tacks on all of the poles... I'm sure you can imagine how well they work when a horse hits a rail :] Well, I figured B would freak when he hit it. I could tell he was kinda like 'hey, what happened? I don't get it. What was that?' and he just kept going. I let him walk for a second then we started our course again and boyy, can that pony jump! He jumped the moon! He learned his lesson. I could just feel him 'Oh yeh jump, think you can fool me? Not! I'm just going to jump 4ft over you now!' That feeling was simply amazing. He was using himself to the fullest, moving up to the exact needed distance and giving me to-die-for changes.
I finally feel like my hard work is starting to pay off. The potential I saw in him as a little school horse is shinning bright.

I have also moved forward on the process of getting Bryce's APHA papers. I emailed APHA and verified that Bryce is in fact John Deere Jr. I sent the owner of record an email and we have been chatting about the process. The guy seems so great! He offered me a tour of his facility if I wanted to road trip to see the place. I know nothing about western things but he seems like he would be well-known. Here is his site- Kinsey Horses. I think I might head up there one weekend just to check out the other world of western riding. The owner doesn't seem to recall Bryce or have any pictures of him but funny when browsing through the sale horses how some of the "JK..." horses resembled Bryce in their stature and eye. I feel like he had to have been from there.
Can't wait to see a baby picture of him! (Hopefully I will get one with his papers?!)