Team #749 Barbara Mandich and Kelly
Team #749: Barbara Mandich and Kelly
From: Lincoln University, Pennsylvania
Ages: 66 & 34
Combined Age: 100
Test: Introductory Level Test B
As a teenager, my riding experience was limited to local hacking. Our first horses were camp horses that we overwintered. My dad's only instruction was emphatic: "DON'T PUT YOUR FOOT IN THE STIRRUP SO FAR." That was it. The next summer, Dad took a trip to New Jersey and found a little strawberry roan that Mom named "Honey." She was my favorite. We often rode out alone, bareback, and she was always well-mannered.
Fast forward 30 years...
My younger daughter started taking riding lessons, and I decided to ride rather than watch. Little Miss Kelly was a lesson horse when my daughter found her on Horsetopia and said, "This would be a good horse for you, Mom. They're using her for beginners." And so began our journey together.
Thanks to my daughter for pushing me to do more and go faster, saying, "All you have to do is stay on, Mom." We entered a few paper chases, with my daughter on her 17-hand Thoroughbred gelding and me on my 14-hand Arabian cross mare, Kelly. Despite the 40-degree weather and 30-mile-an-hour winds, Kelly was determined to keep up with the big guy. My little mare did a pretty good job keeping up with the Thoroughbred, although my Standardbred mare did leave us eating dust at Fair Hill a few times, mostly because I had to maintain some speed limit.
We entered a few schooling shows over the years but mostly hacked out at Fair Hill together. We did manage to get a reserve champion ribbon once at a local schooling show. Kelly prefers to be in the lead. I often wonder what her life was like before she became the little lesson horse we bought because she is very competitive. Being small and agile, I can imagine her excelling at pole bending when she was younger.
In the last four years, Kelly has been enjoying life in the pasture, pushing my Standardbred mare around and going on the occasional hack. This Century Club ride was very fun; Kelly enjoyed the extra attention, and we waltzed around the arena for the Introductory Level Test B to "Midnight on the Water," an old fiddle tune and my favorite waltz ever.
On to the next phase...retirement and a little light duty as a lead-line pony.
