Pony Profiles: MR Boston Supreme and Rhinestone Rascal

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

So while I moved on to riding at Bonnie's I was still very close with Tom and Nikki.  Tom would occasionally hire me to take care of the horses and clean stalls when he needed help.  And Nikki would invite me to groom for her at horse shows with both Tuffy in halter classes and Image in western pleasure.  When I started at Bonnie's one of the first horses I rode was a chestnut Quarter horse gelding, MR Boston Supreme.  Boston was Bonnie's event horse, but he was a great first horse for me to learn on.  Even though I had been riding with Nikkie for about a year, I had not yet had any formal lessons.  At the time Little Creek Pony Club was still fairly small, there was only like maybe 6 or 7 of us.  So I started learning to ride dressage and I learned to jump.  Boston was a trooper and so very patient with me as I learned.  He was also very patient with me through lots of lunge lessons, which were so very necessary!


Look at my horrible leg!


God, I'm practically laying on his neck and it's such a baby jump!


Boston really taught me a lot and I appreciated every chance I got to ride him.  He ended up being sold to one of the kids in pony club and moved on to a successful eventing career with her.  Sadly I found out just this weekend that Boston passed away.  RIP Boston, you were a sweet old boy.

After Boston was sold, I got to try riding Stoney.  Stoney, or Rhinestone Rascal as I dubbed him for shows, had belonged to another girl in pony club.  But she was a bit afraid of him, understandable because Stoney was a SNOT!  When they had first gotten him, he had a bit of a rearing problem which Bonnie soon fixed after switching his bit to a snaffle.  But he still was a pony, and so he was not always perfectly behaved.  For some reason though, he and I just clicked and I loved him.  That's not to say that he didn't try to get me off, or was always perfectly behaved.  I took him to my first show in 1999, a combined test at South Farm in the intro division.  He was pretty good for dressage, but in stadium, I stopped riding him for just a second and he took advantage.  Completely ran right around the jump and would not turn.  I did get him turned back to the fence and got over it.  But the damage was done and we had a refusal.  But as a plus for me, I stuck with it.  And we completed my first show.










The next year I took Stoney to most of the mini trials in Ohio and we did pretty well for ourselves.  Unfortunately because of a genetic issue, Stoney was going blind so we couldn't jump him very big.  But man did that pony love to run cross country!


Even though we were just jumping little logs, I still remember how much fun it was to gallop across the fields at Stone Gate Farm with my little pony.  The summer of 2001 was the best.  We went to several mini trails and always placed well in dressage and followed it up with clean jumping rounds.  It was the perfect introduction to eventing for me.  Then in late 2001 there was a dispute with Stoney's former owner.  He had been given to Bonnie for use in lessons, the owners had moved onto another barn and Stoney was left behind with us.  Bonnie had assumed the cost of care and upkeep for him.  But they came back and took him from our barn.  I was devastated.  Stoney was my best friend and he had been taken away from me without even a chance to say goodbye.  A police report was filed regarding the incident, but the reality was Bonnie just didn't have the money for a court battle to get him back.  And I haven't seen that awesome little pony since. 

2 comments:

jessicar! February 25, 2011 at 6:00 PM  
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jessicar! February 25, 2011 at 6:02 PM  

Nothing like an awesome pony. So much fun, so sad that you lost Stoney. There's nothing worse than losing such a good mate.

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