Team #546 Stella Gordon and Diamond
Photo provided by Anastasia Henson
Team #546: Stella Gordon and Diamond
From: Conroe, Texas
Ages: 80 & 23
Combined Age: 103
Test: WDAA Introductory Level Test 4
Date: March 6, 2022
My Second Century Ride
The highlight of the show that day was not an 80-year-old woman riding a 23-year-old borrowed horse.
The highlight was yet to come. After the ride, a little girl on a gleaming white pony was led in and placed right beside the 80-year-old woman (that would be me) on the 23-year-old horse (that would be Diamond). Then the little girl reached her little hand up to me for a high-five!!! Stunning! Totally darling. This was all planned by the show manager, Lynette Diamond of New Horizon Stables, in Hockley, Texas. What a super surprise!
Now, you see, this was my second Century Club ride, my first having taken place when I was younger, only 75, on another borrowed horse. Just by chance, both horses were palominos, the former being a Welsh Cob, who taught many a child to ride; the last one a palomino Quarter Horse, who was a champion in her own right, as in her show career she was a champion reining horse. It was difficult for me to ride her as I was not as well trained as she was with all her cues, which were very delicate. Without even realizing that I was legging a cue spot, I rode her right out of the dressage arena, right over the railing. She never faltered, just stepped right over when I reined her back in and kept right on going. Y’all gotta be laughin’ by now.
I first learned of The Dressage Foundation from a friend who mentioned to me that she was going to do a Century Club ride. I immediately took it as a 100-mile ride, and I was ready to join it, only to learn what it really was. I decided that if my friend could do it, then I could, too. Then, of course, I did the paperwork, and I was in! We were both in the same Century Club News magazine; she did English and I did Western Dressage. I always wanted to be a cowgirl.
Folks, my horse story pretty much follows the lines of all the others, a horse-crazy little girl who never outgrew that love. And so on.
Thanks to The Dressage Foundation for all the good things they do for others.
