Two years back, I wrote about a green ribbon cracking the glass ceiling, when my three year old pony-sized Morgan mare Spirit’s Celeste took sixth place in a massive Open In-Hand class at Dressage At Devon. The thing about cracks is they start to sag, and widen, and at some point, a clever little fish fry could wiggle itself through, into the big pond.

The thing about being the little fish in the big pond is that you can stay hidden, slyly slipping from shadows and under leaves, watching the bigger fish, a little bit in fear because they are large and can be scary, but also in wonder and learning. Watching and staying mostly unseen, you can learn the patterns, the routines and rituals the bigger fish use throughout their lives in order to become creatures of their size. Little fish can grow, and instead of the minnow scales we believe we carry, we could instead develop bright colors, or fancy fins. Taking the time to be an observant little fish means that when we’ve grown up a bit and started to get a little bolder, we might be more ready to swim freely in the big pond.

Yes, I do love metaphors.

My first showing with Dressage at Devon was in 2018, with my little stallion Primal Thunder. I had not shown since I was a young teenager and only then in schooling or fair shows, and he was fresh off a summer of breeding and only light work. We were greener than grass and the smallest fish in that big, intimidating pond. Our high score of 68.4% meant nothing to me, not like it should, only that if I’d taken a test in school I’d have received a D+.

The reason I always return to this particular show is that I was this green unknown entity, asking the show staff oodles of questions and making mistakes and everything – but they were all kind to me. I felt encouraged, supported, and my stud pony’s good disposition and cute appearance attracted compliments enough that I felt maybe, just maybe, my idea of breeding Morgans for sport, wasn’t all that crazy.

2024 was my sixth showing at Dressage at Devon. Sadly we all skipped 2020 for the plague year, but I have gone every year since 2018. I might be a weird long finned betta fish in a pool of massive carps, but I think we are learning “the moves.”

I brought the best of my matrilineal breeding this show, descended from Triplesweet Trinity, a mare I bought from a lesson program who has heartily surpassed my highest expectations for her as a broodmare. This lineup included Spirit’s Celeste, her daughter by my stallion Primal Thunder, Starberry Solstice, her son by CM Sunday Kode from Canada, and Starberry Shamrock, the first son of Spirit’s Celeste by Clear Creek Zeus, who was rescued from a meat truck (I’ll blog about his story later). A weird sounding grouping on the sire sides, but in my head, it worked. A nice mix of blood highlighted by Courage of Equinox, Merriehill Chicagoan, Beamington, UVM Promise, Trophy, Bennfield’s Ace, and Chasley Superman genotypically, that to me, phenotypically turned out nice sport pony and sport horse type for the breed.

Dressage at Devon’s Breed Division is primarily showing horses in hand, young stock and breeding adults, but it also includes a set of under saddle classes called Materiale. All of these are to assess conformation, motion, trainability, etc, to understand if a horse is suitable for a future in dressage and similar sports. Of course, I paraphrase, but if you are interested in a complete description of the aims of the classes and how they are judged, I urge you to check out http://www.dressageatdevon.org and http://www.usdf.org. Some of you might know that I do not generally begin riding my horses until they are four or older, as their spines are still forming until about age six, and I would rather have a horse who has a long productive life that began a year or so late than a horse who retires before twenty but started at three. What this means for my sport horse program, though, is that I am behind for the Materiale. Materiale classes are for ages three, four, and five. Originally my intent had been to show Miss Celeste at four in Materiale, but the vet advised to wait a year on bitting under saddle due to how her teeth were shedding and developing, so she carried her first foal and had some ground work but mostly got to take her four year old year to grow herself and her baby. Her colt was born on St Patrick’s Day and he’s perfect. To me anyhow.

Materiale is a new division for me. As a child I rode hunter flat classes so the concept of a walk trot canter class is not foreign to me, but I had still not ever ridden, as an adult, in a horse show of any kind much less an A-rated show in the oldest fairgrounds in the country. Greener than grass, people. For real. But, we did our best. I started Celeste under saddle in the end of May. It’s true what they say about riding starts from the ground, and if you can do it on the ground, you can probably get it done in the tack too – my girl was ready for the saddle work to start, and learned her cues quickly. Her fitness was a bit less than was desired, as she’d just delivered her first baby, but with our chiropractor’s adjustments and our vet’s diet recommendations, the endurance and muscle building workouts got her physically about where she needed to be.

We arrived at Devon Fairgrounds on Monday, middle of the day. Evening, they’d set aside time just for the Materiale horses and riders to spend time in the two rings, getting used to the lights and the flowers and the like. It was almost dark when we saddled up and headed out, two green little fishes in the big blue rings. Celeste, just under fifty rides into her riding career, did not put a foot wrong. She looked, sure, she counter bent to examine things or when something sounded weird, she put her head up in surprise at things, she even did a slight kick up of her heels when she needed to do a full body shake so I’d get off and let her shake without me in the saddle. That’s it. We did a brief walk-trot-canter both ways in Wheeler, and a nice big walk both ways in the Dixon Oval. Seventeen and eighteen hand warmbloods passed us and Celeste just focused on me, her surroundings, and her job. She hadn’t been off property since we were last at Devon, in 2022, and she’s never been ridden in… a proper arena. Our riding space at home is clay soil, sometimes with grass in it, that’s sometimes too hard to ride at more than a walk, or a slanted uneven grass hillside. This beautiful level footing was soft and predictable and I could feel Celeste enjoying it on her feet.

I’m not sure I slept that night. Our ride wasn’t until midday. As I am not an early morning person, this suited me fine, and let me take the morning to warm up my three horses with nice walks around the fair grounds and get myself dressed and ready without feeling rushed. Our first in-hand class was scheduled to immediately follow the Materiale ride, so I wanted to be sure my colts were stretched and clean and set, and that my amazing groom would be ready to help me quickly tidy up Celeste between her ride and her run. Quick shout out to Noelle for being the best right-hand-woman, jennie-on-the-spot, self motivated and sunny show groom!

I was a bit freaked. It’s not every day that you take your first ride in a show ring since you were a tiny pre-teenage human, and for it to be at an A-rated show like Dressage at Devon… I tried not to think about the level of anxiety I should be experiencing so it wouldn’t hit me. Celeste looked stunning, mane in perfect plaits, coat buffed to a healthy shine, tack clean and gleaming. I mounted up.

Not one but four of the riders I was in the class with complimented me on my adorable pony in the warmup ring, with bright, friendly smiles. I should add, the rest of the class averaged 17hh, and Celeste had been measured the day before for her temporary pony card (permanent card at eight and she is five so is measured every season) at 138 cm, or 13.2hh. A pair of trainers I have known since I began showing at Dressage at Devon was at the rail, and as I passed, they shared encouraging words and reminded me to breathe and sit back. I am so grateful for them. They got my head back in the game right before we began the class.

Celeste, in her fiftieth time under saddle, took to the arena boldly, forward but listening, and she did everything I asked. Including, to my embarrassment, picking up the incorrect lead going right, but I am certain it is because I was not balanced from my own nerves. My beloved pony took care of me, and we got the lead fixed. As the littlest horse, I made sure to put us on the inside when passing other horses, and circled in front of the judges to prove her flexibility. We made it. I did not fall off. She did not freak out. She was a star. We scored 69.4% and took home a ribbon.

Photo by Jess Casino Photography