“Pavona” is a registered Thoroughbred who lived on the neighboring ranch that we bought earlier this year. She is a former racehorse and won first place at Bay Meadows Racetrack in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005. While she has been ridden, it has been a few years, so we are having her trained right now at Christa Petrillo Total Horsemanship in Winters, California. She is getting a tune-up, in preparation for her future life as a trail horse. This photo shows me riding Pavona for the very first time–which just happened to be on Friday the 13th, but I felt pretty lucky to ride such a great horse because she has a gentle disposition. Christa said she is a kid-friendly horse too, so one day my children may be riding her. By the way, Pavona is the name of a town in Central Italy. Apparently when she was racing, her owners were of Italian descent. My husband and I plan to visit Italy next year, so we hope to visit the Italian city.