This is my first "real" event horse... who was actually a pony named Bingo. He absoluely loved to run and jump. I swear, if he’d been 10 years younger and two hands taller, he’d have been doing four-stars! He’d been confiscated from his former owner for non-payment of board when we bought him from a riding school at the age of 15. I believe this photo is from our first novice event, at the Fox River Valley Horse Trials in 1985. We also competed at the U.S. Pony Clubs Show Jumping Championships in 1986, where our team finished third. Bingo then retired because of soundness issues caused by arthritis, and after years of wreaking havoc at my parents’ place, came to live with me in Maryland. Sadly, he died Aug. 1, 2002, at the (approximate) age of 35. Photo copyright © 1985 Margaret Kaiser