Welcome to a new feature of "Driving In Color" - here we hope to keep you updated on what Phantom and I are up to for the upcoming year! Updates should be coming every couple of days depending on how exciting our lives become!

After not being able to show last season due to a bout of cellulitis and a blistered leg, we are looking forward to getting back to it this year!

FIRST SHOW OF THE SEASON - PA Pinto, picking up 8 Tobiano Color points!
We also had a really nice pattern in AM Western Showmanship, but due to pilot error (uh...forgetting to perform a 360 degree turn at the right place at the right time.......we did redeem ourselves in AM English Showmanship later in the day!!!)

May 8...we're back!!! Here are some photos taken on May 3 during a short training ride, mostly just artsy (got a new digital camera for Christmas!)

We are continuing to work our squares, do slow work on bending, turns on haunches, forehand, and sidepassing...just getting control of the shoulders and haunches.

We're also continuing to work on arena trail, which unfortunately, he does not have much skill at, but we are still trying!!!

Phantom thinks this is the best part of the evening!

...........more to come

April 30 - Phantom and I are starting a little late this year - my father has been ill and hospitalized since mid-March - he is now in Rehab and making slow progress. However, he is three hours from me, and with my crazy work schedule, I find myself leaving on Friday evening after work, spending time with him on Saturday and then returning home on late Saturday night. I work on Sunday, so I try and get out on Sunday through Thursday evenings to play with the pony, but it gets hard, especially when you are worn out from the traveling, not to mention the stress!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOO...that being said, here is what you get when you are still trying to shed your pony out at the end of April!

...and yes, he was blanketed, but those white hairs are stubborn! I find the toughest hairs are on the face - he is still looking like a fuzzy mule in the right light!

Here is Phantom on the longe line - as you can see, he is as excited as ever about getting back to work!

His hair coat actually doesn't look TOOOOOOOO bad from far away, and he is in not too bad a shape - we had been driving over the winter months inside (as you can see by the shaft rubs on his side!!)

We are working now just on the bending, the jog squares to raise the shoulders - all that boring stuff I usually do at the beginning of the year. We're also working on trail - he is not half as talented as Hank was, but he does try - he just doesn't look too excited about it or pretty doing it!!