Hello All, My name is Pamela Nolf and I am a new member to the group. I live in the Bremerton, WA, area (a 1 hour ferry ride almost directly west across the Puget Sound from Seattle). I moved here from the Philadelphia area about 1 1/2 years ago. My Icelandic horse is named Blessi and I have been lucky enough to have him for 3 years. He is 11 years old and was an import from Iceland. He is a 14.1 hand flaxen chestnut. I am one of those women who turned 50 and realized Santa was never going to bring me a pony and I better do something about it. I had had some English riding lessons in my 40s but had never really ridden before. I am a beginning rider and had my Icelandic for almost 2 years and never rode him faster than a walk. With the help of a local Icelandic trainer, I have overcome my fear of speed and started tolting and troting last summer. I am still looking at re-learning how to canter.
Blessi is a wonderful horse--sometimes stubborn but always takes care of me. I look forward to evaluating him on the horseality chart. We both participated in our first horse show last year. I was so nervous I was shaking. Nothing about the show upset Blessi--except for the first time in the arena when the applause started up at the end of the class. He took 3 small, slow side steps and came right back under control. We were participating in the novice tolt class and I had permission to ride the class at a walk--it was a small class. Well the announcer said "Put your horse into a tolt" and Blessi must have thought he heard the "Big Trainer in the Sky" say tolt and he went into a beautiful smooth tolt--which is strange because he prefers trot over tolt. Anyway, my fear caught up with me and I checked him to a walk. We should have gone with it. Anyway, I look forward to learning from the group. I have been lurking for the past 2 days. I have really enjoyed hearing about everyone's horses and experiences. Regards, Pamela PS A note about Blessi's name. If you know Icelandic, it is really Blesi for blaze. However, when I first got Blessi, I got a piece of jewelery made with his name on it and spelled it as Blessi. Since I don't want to admit I made a mistake, I have been calling him Blessi-- you can call him Blesi or Blaze. He doesn't care as long as he gets a carrot.