Well Pixie is solidly broke to ride and just needing some final polishing that can be accomplished quickly in the spring. Heather, the pony rider, informed us a couple of weeks ago that she was going back to school (always a good choice!), so we would soon be without a small, lightweight rider for starting ponies.

Quickly we switched Dijon for Pixie at the indoor arena. Again he's been backed over the last 2 years and has maybe had a week's worth of riding - nothing serious.

He's been looking a bit tall but it is hard to tell in a barn full of Medium and small Large ponies. Of mixed parentage - 1/2 Section B Welsh, 1/4 Arabian and 1/4 Saddlebred he could stay top of the line Large or go over into Horse. So I dredged out the measuring stick and lo and behold the bugger grew over the winter on us - he now stands 14.3 and may have a bit more growth yet.

Sooooo - I now have a lovely inspected and branded North American Sport "Hony" for sale. Luckily he's also registered Half-Welsh, so we can still partake in breed shows. I'm not overly disappointed as 14.3 is a lovely height and with his bone and attitude he'll be extremely versatile - jumping, driving, dressage, endurance, ..... just about anything you want to ask him to do.

He lunged well the first couple of days and was backed again last Friday with no problems. Then Tues with the wild weather in advance of the "snow storm" he decided he didn't want to play nice without me there demanding his attention. So back to lungeing last night and today it's back under saddle - I hate "teenage boy" in horses.

Along with Dijon, Manoravon has 3 New Forest Pony geldings that we are putting through training before we lose Heather to school. Mark, Charles and Top Brass are all coming along nicely - got to love the brains on the NFP! If all goes well today Mark gets backed. Charles and Top Brass may get backed later in the week depending upon how they advance with lungeing and ground driving.

Nothing like a winter project or 6 to keep you from getting bored and depressed.