RIP Miss Pearly Whirl

Quite possibly one of my most favorite horses to have touched my life has died. Below is a dedication letter sent to the Horse's Maine, by Sandy Welsh of Puckerbrush Farm, where Pearl lived as a vaulting and a riding horse! Although she was as drafty as they come she did very well in Dressage, during her very short time as a Dressage Queen :) "Pink was her favorite color" and she looked absolutely fabulous in it. I'll miss my "Miss Pearly Whirl" very much, and I'll always remember her large, but very cute face.
Kim~

It is with great sadness that we pass along the news that on July 12 we lost our girl, Pearl. As many of you know, Pearl was the best vaulting horse we had ever had the pleasure of knowing. She taught many children and adults balance, horsemanship, patience and compassion.

She was fondly known as "Pearly whirl" or "Pearl the girl" and could be seen decked out in her bright pink ribbons and polos. She adored the children fussing around her but would let us all know when someone exceeded her weight limit by tossing in some bucks. She thought she was our princess and work was below her station in life. But then she would perform her slow, steady, smooth trot and allow even the smallest of children to practice their vaulting moves on her and she would glow with pride.

During the winter of 2005-06, the University of Maine Dressage Club decided that Pearl should learn to be ridden as well as vaulting. Kim Townsend brought her along to be shown in some of our schooling shows earning a score of 68% in an Intro B test with Laura Walters riding! Her canter work was coming along as well and she was ridden by several of the young lesson students at Puckerbrush.

Going back to January of 2005, we give many thanks to Curt and Lisa Bonney of Turner for allowing Pearl to come and live at Puckerbrush. She had lived with them throughout her life, allowing their children to climb under, over and on top of her. She had one foal out of a Morgan stallion and was a great mom. They heard that Puckerbrush was looking for a new vaulting partner and contacted us to come visit them. Pearl had been a 'pasture pony' for many years but we thought she had the temperament to work with us.

Pearl was only with us for a year and a half but she was a part of so many lives. When someone loses their horse, its a sad event for the individual. Unfortunately, the whole horse world in Maine is suffering a great loss as she had taught hundreds of people vaulting and riding.

J&W in the rain

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me doing Upper Training at the IDA UMass Spring 06 show. This is a morgan gelding that was very cute, we placed 10th, but it was a good ride non the less. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Pearl

Today I rode Pearl at the Puckerbrush Dressage show today (4/2/06) and we did Intro A and Intro B, My first test we got Second (and almost killed the judge), and my second test we got 5th YEAH Pearl! 

IDA Mt. Holyoke Spring 06

Well this weekend we went to Mt. Holyoke for the Spring Dressage Show :). It was great! We all had personal bests and overall it was the best the team has done. We finished 8th overall in points, and laura and kat both got ribbons! They both recieved 6th place, I got 10th, and Amy got 11th. But we really did very well for our individual scores :). I got four 7s in my test, basically the canter work/transitions and the freewalk I got 7's on. Unfortunately I was on a very young percheron/tb mare and she absolutely wouldn't stretch out during the stretchy trot circle which counts double for the test. The judge gave me a four, which is sad because it was due to the fact that my mare was young. But She is going to be awesome in a year or two! I fell in love with her. She also baulked a bit at the judge when we first entered the ring for the halt/salute.

I am very proud of her though, and my test with her because this was the frist time she had ever been in a show, much less a dressage show!, and I was her first ride. I am thinking that I'm just going to have to get a percheron/tb cross for myself one day because I keep getting to ride them and I absolutely love them. But a draft cross would probably just suit me best in general! My test was scored a 58.33. So not wonderful, but I still am so happy with the score :). Typically I get atleast a 6 or 7 on my trot stretchy circle, so I recalculated my score with a 6 in the stretchy circle and I would have recieved a 61.66 so thats not bad either...but that is a if I woulda coulda type of thing. So look at the pictures below taken at the show. I think that some of them came out really nicely.