Tracy Meets the Nerd Horse

Tracy Meets the Nerd Horse

Aside from running myself over with my car, I did have some great fun this weekend when awesome blogger friend Tracy from Fly On Over came to Austin for vacation!  Now I’m not sure you’re aware, but no trip to the Lone Star state is complete without a visit to nerd horse and yours truly.  Lucky for me, Tracy and her awesome husband agreed to trek outside of Austin for a bit of a horsey adventure.

When I finally managed to back out of my driveway while keeping all car doors attached, I picked up Tracy and hubby to start with a pre-ride brunch at Threadgills.  This was partially because I wanted to make up for all the transportation drama the day before, partially because husbands always enjoy horse outings more when they’re not hungry and partially because I have a deep rooted love of garlic cheese grits.  Anyway, there is no photographic proof of brunch so I’ll just move right along.

After grits, we headed to the barn.  I’d like to say that Tracy is just as fun, bubbly and awesome as she appears to be on the internet.  I had a great time chatting on the way to greet my pony, who I hadn’t seen in a week due to rain/weather/work events/tearing my car door off.

So while I told Tracy that she wouldn’t be the first person to ride Simon in over a week, I did say that she’d be the second.  I knew my ponykins wouldn’t do anything naughty like buck or take off, but I was hoping he wasn’t going to start off as freshy McFresherson.

I shouldn’t have worried.

16127512177_19bddc5d04_z

Folks, let me be the first to tell you that Tracy is a much better rider than she gives herself credit for on her blog.  Many of us are adult amateurs who have things to work on, but she did a really nice job hacking my quite sensitive horse who basically had a week off.

16127534967_74f8d522a7_z

Simon kind of has two trots – a “la la la happy hunter” slow trot and a more engaged, dressagy trot.  Tracy and Simon stayed in happy hunter land for a few laps, and then she got him to engage and round a bit more.  Awesome!

16313360915_6be35318af_z

Then I was all “canter!  canter!” except I forgot to warn her that his trot to canter transitions are less than desirable.  Whoops me.

15690968174_e7c8b70436_z

15693507313_36cdd96db8_z

After they cantered each way, we chatted a bit about my creature.  How he takes more leg than she thought (true), how he likes go to at the canter (also true) and how he almost wants you to hold him up at the canter, but they gets heavy and quick if you aren’t soft (true true).  Tracy was all “This is fun!” and I was all “Okay now we will jump all the things.”

16125845338_b02a3fd439

She said sure, she would jump the small things.  I nodded but thought, ‘Nah we’ll jump all the things she just doesn’t know it yet’.

We started with trotting the micro logs.

16125814488_182bde960a

16125831038_63489a04ab_z

16312498852_b6c9e95e29_z

Simon was all “ooo this is getting interesting” and Tracy wasn’t screaming stop yet, so I was like ‘go canter bigger logs.’

16127502767_6bf0971d1d_z

16126010470_fe7735bde7_z

16127518577_64d86a532c_z

Which, let me tell you, Tracy has a much better eye than I do.  She didn’t miss a single distance on Simon.  Me?  I feel like I miss distances each ride on him… multiple times.

After all the small to medium size jumps were achieved, we chatted some about the nerd horse.  How much he likes jumping.  How he locks onto things.  How he is pretty adjustable and listened to her.  At this point, Tracy still didn’t seem terrified and Simon was like a small kid excited for new toys so I said, “Let’s jump the bigger jumps”.

15693513713_17dd3d041e_z

And they did.

16126003140_149a3e2fa8_z

And it was awesome.

After all this success, we took this person for L. Williams to quell the rumors that we are the same person.

16125822188_cf3f0b26dc_z

See internet?  Two people.  I promise!

Sunday at the barn with Tracy was definitely the bright spot on my weekend.  So glad we got to meet and I could the joy of jumping the nerd horse!

30 thoughts on “Tracy Meets the Nerd Horse

  1. So fun!!!! I’d love to meet some fellow bloggers and their ponies. Simon and Miles are definitely up top on my “I must meet” list. And their owners, of course 😉

  2. Simon looks so good in these pics and ZOMG my eq isn’t totally embarrassing!! Thank you so, so much for sharing your pony with me — he’s seriously the greatest! Such a nice, fun horse to jump around. You should be really proud of yourself and the horse you’ve trained because he truly is amazing and you definitely don’t give yourself or him enough credit! <3

  3. Aww, what great pics! They look so nice together – you’d never know that’s the first time they worked together!

  4. I wrote this on Tracy’s post too but – this story was SO SWEET to read from each of your perspectives! And what a huge compliment to Simon that he could do so much with a new-to-him rider!

  5. This is adorable! so glad you all got to meet. And she does look quite good on Simon :* Although honestly I think it’s easier to ride horses that aren’t your own sometimes- no emotions attached!! (But I love her outfit- I need those breeches, they’re my colors…!)

  6. Ohmygosh Simon is so handsomeeeeeeeee. I am stuck in winter-land, and all the ponies are so fuzzy and he is so shiny!! Tracy looks awesome on him too. Sounds like a fun day all around!

  7. Weird, I could’ve sworn i commented on this post…guess not, best go back & make sure I read it!
    I’m so jealous you guys got to meet up – everyone looks fab & it sounds like a great time was had by all ☺

    1. Just (re)read this post as it appears I was mistaken and actually hadn’t read this yet so my missing comment wasn’t actually missing – it hadn’t happened yet … Eeep confusion!
      I lol’d @ the photographic proof being necessary for Miss Williams

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.