1st ride at home

Welcome to the family Dusty!

As fate would have it, we were on the hunt all summer for a new mount for Lillie as Frosty is working up to getting ready to find his new forever home, there were 3 stipulations.. 1. Safe, 2. a gelding, 3. not a pony.. Of course this day in age.. all 3 in 1 package can certainly be a challenge while staying in a reasonable budget.. A good friend of mine Kat, sent me an email late summer about a gelding that she had trained originally,  may be looking for a new "kid" to show the ropes to.. and it was thankfully the beginning of the end of our search.. Of course it has been a while since I had a giraffe in the barn..well let's face it.. gypsy horses tend to be vertically challenged.. Dusty is over 16h and a solid hunk of a paint. He was bred by Linda Lamarche of Painted Image Farm in Candia NH and trained by Linda and Katrina Scarito.   Lillie and I went to meet "Dees Dusty Image" as I had seen him at shows in the past but never officially met him.. Lillie was instantly in love, she forgot all about her dream of having an appaloosa ( thank goodness!)  He was so good and did not care that Lillie was cantering around and bucking while his mom Leah was riding him showing him to us. When Lillie climbed up, he was all business walking very carefully and even taking a couple trot steps for her all the while being so very careful of his precious cargo.. 

Dusty came home the end of September 2021 only 1 week before the 4H Fall Fuzzies show..we jumped in with both Feet and Lillie rode close to every night after school getting ready. I am so proud of these 2.. Dusty takes SUCH good care of Lillie, he is kind and really takes everything in stride.. 
Lillie showed leadline at the show but she has now progressed to walk trot independently at home in the ring.. I even got brave and took him for a little spin in the ring! We are looking forward to trail riding together again soon.. Thank you Leah Lemay for entrusting us with Dusty.. it is an honor to have him in our family <3
Many more pictures to come!!!
Summer 2022 Lillie and Dusty were able to run in a couple of the gymkhanas with the New Boston Gymkhana.. Proud of them both!

August 2022: Lillie and Dusty went to their first  walk trot pleasure show! They did equitation, pleasure, showmanship trail and speed barrels at NbarH.. the classes were HUGE so they were not in the ribbons but Dusty was a pro.. Lillie got her diagonals and they had fun! Her classes were split and for her first under saddle group class she was 1 of 12 riders and one of the youngest in the class.. I am a proud Mom for sure!

October 2022: Lillie and Dusty joined Pooper and I at the NEGHC Show in NY! Other than the leadline class participants, she was the youngest rider at the show and I couldn't be more proud. The weekend didn't exactly go the way that we had hoped and we left a little early but we survived!

2023 - Lillie and Dusty were only able to attend a couple of gymkhanas this year due to scheduling but they did come to the NEGHC Gypsy/All breed show in NY and Did a great job in the walk trot division this year even getting a 2nd in equitation!