devonsmileDevon and I, we go way back.

We go back to 2005, where I did win the Young Rider freestyle on a very, very big score, after nearly getting my rear end dumped in the ring at least once in the Team and Individual Tests. Then there was 2006, when Billy ran backwards almost all the way from X to the ingate at A (comment at the end of the test from Anne Gribbons: that I was “tactful, brave, and not influential.” Love it.)

In 2009, Ella completely froze and shut down in a fourth level test, earning a whopping 48 percent, and Cleo bit her lip panicking in her stall when I took Ella out to show her and I scratched. And in 2010, Fender’s stall flooded to the point of standing in fetlock-deep water, and the footing was so horrendous due to weather that I took him home without ever even riding.

So Devon and I have not always been friends.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!