Guess who was in Austin? HILLARRRYYY from Equestrian at Hart, one of my very favorite fellow bloggers! We have always had a lot in common (obviously she has impeccable taste) and chat constantly, so it just makes sense that one day we’d actually get to meet up in person. When she let me know that she was coming to the area for work, I immediately started planning.
The most important item on the to-do list was riding, of course. The second most important item on the list was food. Hillary loves food as much as I do (we have bonded over it a lot via facebook and instagram), and I will happily seize any excuse to eat my way around town and be super fat. I picked her up from the airport on Sunday morning, and after a quick visit to Henry to give him cookies and see how he looked the day after his event (awesome), we headed out into Austin in search of sustenance. After some tacos we roamed around and did a little shopping, including a stop at the best candy store ever. It has EVERYTHING, to the point of being overwhelming.
She claimed in her day 1/2 recap that she didn’t buy anything while we were downtown, but I have photographic evidence to the contrary.
Then we met up with Karen for an early dinner of shared appetizers before walking a few blocks over to Gourdough’s, the best food trailer on the planet. They make ridiculously amazing monstrosities out of donuts, and I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen anyone completely dominate one before… until Hillary. She polished off the entire Fat Elvis and didn’t even throw up. Much respect, I was really impressed.
On Monday I had to work so she was left alone in my house with the most traitorous corgi ever. He decided Hillary was his new mom and pretty much stuck to her like velcro the whole time she was here. Worst dog, no loyalty.
After work I picked her up and we headed to the barn for a little hack. She took Henny for a spin in the hay field, which he thought was great fun, even if she was about to die in the heat. I’m not sure which thing she marveled at the most – the oppressive heat that feels a little bit like living in an oven, or the fact that our mud turns into concrete when it dries. Yay Texas.
Then we went out for dinner (with Bobby because he’s gotta insert himself into everything, naturally), featuring fancy ramen followed by vegan ice cream – because I can’t imagine anything more “hipster Austin” than that particular combo. When in Rome, right? As we were standing at the ice cream place Hillary said “I think I take too many showers and don’t have enough tattoos to live here.”. Nailed it. Austin hipster experience: complete.
On Tuesday I picked her up after work and again headed to the barn. This time I tossed her up on Henny and made her jump him. Ok – it didn’t take much arm twisting (read: none) to convince her to take him for a spin over fences. That’s where he really shines, after all. First she hopped over the little fences in the ring, then I raised them all to 3’3″ish. She gave me a slightly hairy eyeball but off she went around the course, and after the first couple fences she was like “I NEED A HENRY!” and tackled everything with gusto. You can’t have him, he’s mine. They got along really well though, and seemed to have fun together. Henny is great, and I like seeing other people enjoy his greatness.
After the barn we met up with Karen one last time and had breakfast for dinner, featuring my favorite cinnamon roll pancakes, at a restaurant near my house. I feel like there are still so many food experiences left to share in Austin, but we did our best at hitting a wide variety.
It was a super fun time getting to visit with Hillary, and we’ve made some horse show plans in the fall, so hopefully we’ll be seeing each other again soon! Quinn wholeheartedly agrees.
breedrideevent.com 
Lots of blogger meetups lately! So fun
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Looks like you two had a blast! No firm dates to visit Austin yet, but hoping to meet you and Henny when I finally make it down there. 🙂
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Best adventure everrrr! Now I want to find a way to meet you somewhere so I can show Henny and have all the fun!
Thanks so much for having me and I can’t wait until next time so I can concur more of austins foodie world.
Quinn tried to make a mad dash with me this morning and I was like sorry dude – next time!
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That dog…
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That doughnut pic makes me both excited and apprehensive. Glad you guys had fun!!
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That’s a really good way to describe those doughnuts.
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Looks like a really fun visit! There are few things better than the food in Austin, and that candy store is totally legit. I’m glad Hillary understood the full “Austin hipster experience” 😉
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Haha I was like I am too interested in personal hygene to mix with 85%+ of the population here.
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This sounds super fun! Especially all the Austin food! I can’t wait to come down there! I saw the video of Hillary on instagram and at first thought it was you, but then saw the long braid flapping about and knew better:)
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The only reason my hair was down is because my head doesn’t fit in any of Amandas helmets with my hair up. It killed my soul a bit.
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Yeaaaaaaaah her head is giant…
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Sounds like a ton of fun! Man, I need this Austin food you speak of.
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I’m not sure how much variety you gave her food wise since you had donuts, ice cream, and cinnamon roll pancakes, but still sounds like you hit some of the Austin staples. She and Henry look so great! Pretty good for a catch ride.
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and Tacodeli and two kinds of queso and Ramen and Kerbey breakfast and a variety of appetizers at Snack Bar… seems like a pretty wide variety of Austin to me.
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I think between Mexican, ramen, donuts, candy, brinner, snack bar apps, and local ciders I covered about as much as one person can consume in a 2.5 day trip. All of the people at the local office I’m working from said I covered good ground in the Austin foodie scene.
Considering I haven’t ridden a lot of different horses recently or jumped over 2’6 in years I’m gonna go ahead and say Henry and I looked awesome over 3’3/3’6 not pretty good and I despise people who regularly pat themselves on the back. Henry is a perfect example of how great a horse can be for a variety of riders with good training.
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Sounds like you covered a lot after all! Henry is definitely a cool guy, and you guys do look awesome. 🙂
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I am so glad I got to finally meet Hillary in person, especially in the context of doughnuts and breakfast for dinner. So if every horse blogger visits Austin, that might be enough trips to Gordough’s to try every doughnut …
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Oh god no. I don’t think I can do that.
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Plus Voodoo doughnuts …
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OMG I totally am down to help you guys with those donuts.
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I wanna go to Austin! Looks like y’all had a blast!
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I think you would fit in here!
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That sounds like a great visit. Ponies and food, perfect.
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What a fun meetup!!!!
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this post made me stupid hungry. in ways that kind of confuse me. like, am i really craving a doughnut topped with traitorous corgi and a fried egg? lolz…
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Traitorous corgi’s are chewy and bitter, do not recommend. Gourdough’s does have a doughnut with egg though…
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Dear. F-ing. Lord. I need those doughnuts in my life. DC has a shit doughnut scene, and it’s a goddamned travesty. They have shops with all these crazy doughnut creations, but their base doughnut sucks. You can’t pile good toppings on a shitty doughnut canvas and expect to make art!! Ugh.
#thedonutrageisreal
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Agree with this^ We don’t have any decent donuts around either, and no amount of topping fixes a bad base donut.
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I want to come back to Austin for your Mexican food!!
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So fun!!! OMG all that food. I gained 11 pounds just reading this.
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If I ever make it back to Austin you need to take me to all those food places!
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This post makes me so happy! And why does no one live in FLORIDA!?!? I vote blogger show trip, where we all meet up, and show all over the states with our ponies. We’ll eat and show our way through the country!!!
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Bobby and I are talking about two weeks in Ocala next Feb/March…
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So down. I have friends to see in Gainesville anyways.
Although Ocala is not known for their food lol
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Its* What are words? Or grammar?
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Blogger meetups are are the best. Thank you for the food images. Looks like you ladies had a grand time. 🙂
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Now I really want a donut
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