Memphis, Day 1

I had originally hoped to pick up my EMM Mustang in Pauls Valley on Friday the 12th, but my baby sister graduated that evening in San Antonio and I couldn't miss it. My friend Lauren and I drove to Pauls Valley Friday night, leaving SA at 6:30 and arriving at the hotel around 2 a.m. We arrived at the BLM at 8 a.m., anxious to see what was going to be coming home with us in the trailer. Lauren had asked me if I had a preference, and after having such a tough yearling for the '08 EMM, feeling prepared for anything, I said I didn't care, I just wanted something pretty.

When we got to the facility, there were several in line ahead of us, so we got to watch other EMM trainers load their horses. There were some really gorgeous ponies going out to trainers, and I was so excited. And then I saw him. Poor guy is pretty homely with a huge thick cresty neck and a big ol' draft head.

Here he is in the trailer. That's not a little trailer, but he's a big ol' boy with huge ears.

He did try to go over the chute wall at first, but then settled in, and loaded like a rocket. He also tried to make one escape effort in the trailer, but that was it and he travelled like a pro all the way back home. We got home too late Saturday night to get anything done, and I have to admit, looking at him at home, I just had to laugh. He looks like, as my friend likes to say, a "put together by a committee, overgrown pony." Ha!