Late on Saturday night, Connor's breeder asked if I wanted to see Castleberrys Delight, Connor's full sister, go Prix St. Georges with her the next morning. Delight does't live terribly close to Indiana, so I assumed seeing her would be a hike - and I was surprised to find out she was not only showing at the HHP, she was stabled next to Karen's Hampton!
(I said on Facebook that I've met three of Connor's full siblings, but it's actually four now: Delight, Tristan, Cadence and Dyma Hi.)
I wondered if I would recognize her as I walked over to the warmup - and then I was like, "That's stupid, she looks just like your horse." And she does, in many ways. She got more of her sire's head while Connor got his mom's, and she's a liver chestnut while he's a brighter chestnut, but they are similarly built and have almost the exact same blaze that sort of looks like a hand with the index finger pointing up.
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| Her little brother in the same ring a few weeks ago. |
Seeing her go was awesome, and not a little intimidating. Her rider is awesome and Delight is so well-educated, it looked like her rider could control every aspect of every step. But, Delight is also 6 years older than Connor, and that pair has a lot of advantages we don't: months training and showing in Florida every year, to name one. Still, rather than being discouraging, it was awesome to see what's possible with a very VERY similar pony to Connor.
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| This photo taken by Connor's breeder. |
They ended up winning their class both days, despite apparent not-so-generous scoring for all competitors, with a 60% I think. That's quite low for her, but they felt the scores didn't represented the tests, and said they were some of her best work.
Delight's owner also has a 13.3 Section C gelding going Intermediare who I just fell in love with. Look at this little guy - this was in warmup!
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| Also, he's 19 years old and doesn't look or act a day over 12. High five for ponies! |
He wasn't feeling his best that weekend and showing him was a game-time decision after the warmup. I'm glad they ended up deciding to show him, he was a treat to watch.
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| Tiny pony changes. |
The most interesting thing for me was talking to Delight's rider. She talked about how she always has to get Delight "amped up" to do good work, how she has a tendency to get low in the poll, and other things that made me chuckle because I was familiar with them.
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| Look at the tiny double! |
I regretted not entering that show after knowing they were there. They don't come this way that often, and Delight's owner pooh pooh'd my excuse that I didn't feel we were ready for rated showing. "You're always ready!" Next time, we'll be there.
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