Congratulations! That’s wonderful! I have a friend that had a similar path to her bronze. About 20 years and 3 horses later . . . she got her bronze (and she’s fabulous rider—just didn’t always have the horse that could get her there). Spoiler alert—she got her Silver only 2 years later on her own homebred mare. So there you go—your next lofty goal!
I earned my bronze this summer on my mare —that I got at age 3 and rode, showed myself, up through the levels (meanwhile, she’s also been my event horse). Honestly, this horse could’ve done mediocre 1st level forever—but I got a really good trainer that coached us along. My mare is hot, spicy so she is much easier to jump than to “dressage” (and me, the rider, who is wayyy more persistent than talented). So between the 2 of us—my trainer had a pretty big hill to climb! I did get our picture into the USDF yearbook in time and saw it last week in the online copy. I was proud of our accomplishment all over again!
