Thursday, February 28, 2013
Day 4 - Horses Horses Horses
Catty just went on a hack yesterday after jumping two days in a row, and Ianto got to do a jump school. Ianto is going so well, and now I'm having to relearn how to ride him a bit, as he is being bolder to the jumps. I certainly hope this translates when we get back home.
Other than riding there are the usual barn chores, feeding, mucking, grooming, bathing, blanketing, etc. All the usual horse things that for some reason is a vacation in my mind. It is wonderful to have dinner in the evenings with a group and everyone is talking about horses. I'm still not used to the fact that almost all conversations here revolve around horses.
Today should be fun with more nice weather and an XC school for Catty and Ianto. Hopefully they both are at their best.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Day 3 - Rain and Boyd
Yesterday started off pretty miserable with a cold rain. Again leaving me thinking I came down for this weather? So it was a slow start to the day, which included another healthy meal, this time at IHOP. It is truly funny to me that almost all conversation here revolves around horse, definitely a bit different from my everyday back home. It's also cool that almost everywhere you drive you see rigs of big name eventers. It truly is an eventing mecca here.
So luckily the afternoon yesterday dawned sunny and 60 degrees, it was truly lovely. I worked Ianto on the flat, where he was ok, but kept neighing to Catty. Maybe by the end of the week they will get over that, but I'm not so sure. Then I loaded up Catty to take her for a lesson with Olympian Boyd Martin. I was worried she would be a bit crazy, as she hasn't really settled in well since we've been here, she hates changes in her routine. However, she came off the trailer calm and relaxed, thank goodness.
She was absolutely wonderful in the lesson. We got some great things to work on, including getting deeper to the fences, and holding my upper-body over the fences. He complimented us, saying Catty is a tidy jumper, and after we put in a decent round of fences he said it looked like I had done a lot of jumping in my time. After jumping in the ring we worked a bit in his water-jump, and Boyd had me canter around to a rather large table in the water. I was a bit nervous cantering around to it as we haven't jumped xc since last fall, and I was thinking do not screw this up in-front of Boyd. However, Catty jumped it well, which led to the highlight of the day when Boyd said I have a cool horse! It was wonderful to feel like Catty and I are on the right track. Today she will have an easier day as we plan to XC school tomorrow. Fingers crossed we are ready for our first event of the year this Saturday!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Day 2 - Settling In
I got to jump another horse, which was a wonderful opportunity for me to work on my riding. I also got to gallop a lovely mare that was terrific fun. The day also included a trip to the feed store, where I got to see the exhorbitant costs of hay, yikes. One of the highlights of the day? Breakfast for lunch at Waffle House, not the healthiest, but oh so good. I have noticed while the locals are certainly friendly here, they defintely move at a much slower pace than people in the DC area.
Off to start another day. It should be a big day as I have a lesson scheduled with Boyd Martin. I'm praying that Catty is on her best behavior.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Day 1 or How to Change a Flat Tire
The excitement for the day was when I went with my trainer to take two of his horses to a local farm. Sounds pretty usual, right? Well we are getting one of the horses ready, chatting with the farm owner and hear a loud bang, then what sounds like air brakes. We all look at each other, like what in the world? Turns out one of the trailer tires blew while we were sitting there, and it went flat in record time. So after the two horses were worked my trainer got the tire changed, which required us finding random pieces of wood to get the trailer up high enough to get the tire off. Luckily all ended well, but it defintely added some excitement to the day.
Well time to get another day going. I have been terrible about taking pictures as I seem to constantly be on the move, but I will try to get some today.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
We Have Arrived!
Catty, Ianto and I made it safely to Aiken yesterday afternoon, thank goodness. It rained nearly the entire trip down, which is really terrific considering my truck's windshield wipers squeak with every swipe, quite irritating after a while. The truck also provided a couple scary moments with some random rather loud rattling sounds, but luckily they were short in duration. Another scary moment was being passed by semi's on each side of me simultaneously going 65 mph in the pouring rain, causing my knuckles to turn white as I clung to the steering wheel. Overall though the trip wasn't as bad as I was anticipating. However, I did get quite bored at times, and my butt fell asleep just an hour into the trip, but if those are my only complaints life isn't bad.
The horses seem to have settled in well. At first I put them in their stalls and Catty looked so depressed. I think she thought she was going to be stuck in a stall the whole time like the last time she was away. As soon as I put her and Ianto out in the paddock her demeanor completely changed, and you could almost see a smile on her face. I did get to go on a hack on one of my trainer's horses yesterday, and there is so much space to ride out it's terrific. I can't wait to take Catty and Ianto out. Today is supposed to be sunny and 70, which I'm beyond excited for. Yesterday when I arrived it was foggy and in the 40's. All I could think was I drove 9 hours for this?
Friday, February 22, 2013
Preparations – Part 2
Monday, February 18, 2013
Preparations – Part 1
Now with it being crunch time I have to get tons of laundry done for me and the horses, clean and clip them so they don’t look like ragamuffins, make sure I have everything packed that I need, and try not to freak out too much!