I often wish I wasn’t like this, but there is some fundamental part of my essence that wants to take the most difficult path to accomplish things, and that has been my theme song to getting my Gold Medal with Knight. The brief summary of my journey with Knight is that I got him seven years ago for $1 because he was so explosive and dangerous that in his youth he was deported back to the Netherlands. He spent our first year together trying to bronc me off every day, and at competitions his “knightsplosions” were the most violent. Our first two seasons together I wore a cross country vest at shows, and if we were able to make it through 50% of our tests without being eliminated or me having to excuse ourselves it was a miracle. This went on for over four years, and I now walk with a limp uphills as a direct result of my Knightling and his temper tantrums. It took about 5 years to put piaffe on Knight because he kept trying to decapitate our grounds people and eject me in the process, and his general aversion to learning new tricks made getting him to the Grand Prix a very slow journey. So this past weekend earning our last score for my Gold Medal has felt completely surreal. I am so proud of this horse and how far he has come, and I am so thankful to everyone who has helped us on our journey. Kathy Connelly, I can’t thank you enough for your help and guidance over the last 5 years. You always have believed in me and Knight and your patience and knowledge is the reason we are where we are today, words can not express how grateful I am to have you in my life. Also a huge thank you to Jane Hannigan for all of your help over the last few months, it means more than I can say
Knight is an incredibly high maintenance and special needs horse (kind of like his mom) and perhaps the biggest thank you goes out to North Bridge Equine and Stephanie Shen for keeping him sound, and Tim O’brien for keeping his special foot in fighting shape
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