Moultonborough, New Hampshire: Chloe Hood has written about her half-Connemara, Rimmy-Go-Bragh. She says, “ I purchased Rimmy (or my mom did!) from Mary Delton of Black Point's Farm, NY in 2005. As a 12 year old, I had successfully evented Baby Novice on my trusty pony and was ready to make the step up to novice and training. At home, Rimmy was the perfect gentleman. We often hacked down the roads and swam in the lake with friends and their ponies. Within months of his coming to New Hampshire, I had taught Rimmy how to ground tie, and self load onto any trailer. The problems started when he got of the trailer... and found himself on a show ground. For the first half of my show season in 2005, I found myself flying through the air (luckily still on top of Rimmy) in every warm-up. The buzz of the warm-up arenas sent Rimmy into nervous fits, but as soon as we entered the ring, he put on his game face, and usually came out in the ribbons. By the end of the season Rimmy and I had gained enough confidence to compete in schooling events without any large upsets. Now our enemy was no longer warm-ups... but hives. After a several month battle with hives, we discovered that Rimmy was severely allergic to several types of bugs. As of this fall, Rimmy and I have competed in many USEA Novice events. He has easily cleared 4 ft fences, and placed in 3'9 jumper classes. Despite all the bumps (literally) in the road, Rimmy and I have become far more able and confident competitors. Unlike many horses, what stopped Rimmy from being a successful event horse was not dressage, or cross-country stops, but nerves. We had seen Rimmy have scores in the 20's (note: this is 20 penalty points….a GREAT score) in dressage, and double clear cross-country and stadium rounds, just usually not at the same event. When we managed to put all three talents together, our partnership was a sight to behold. Rimmy had always had his trademark "Go Bragh" qualities, it just took a bit of growing up, on my part and his.”

Aiken, SC: Healing Springs Limerick was supposed to do his second Prelim Combined Training Event the weekend of Feb 10 at Sporting Days in Aiken, S.C. with Donna Miller riding. Donna is taking Limerick to Preliminary level to get him ready for daughter Devon Brown. They had completed a successful outing at Prelim two weeks before, but a puncture wound during the week resulted in a scratch at Sporting Days One. So Donna and Devon put their heads together and decided that Devon should take the stallion, Ard Celtic Art, in his place. They could enter the Junior Novice Division as there had also been a scratch there. So Devon successfully moved him up to Novice. They were in first place after dressage with a 25 (!!!!) and went clean XC to stay in first after Cross Country. However they had one rail down in stadium and ended up in second after the tie for first was broken by closest to optimum time on XC. Devon was 4 seconds further away from optimum than the winning junior rider. So big congratulations to Devon and Art!!!! They also won an award for Best Turned Out for the day!