Despite the best efforts of Spirit Airlines, I made it back from LRK3DE. Our flight leaving Florida was delayed almost 4 hours, and our flight coming back was cancelled, rebooked for 10 hours later, and then two and half hours delayed. Fun times. It’s one of those things where you keep repeating “at least it was cheap” a few hundred times in your head.

This year’s trip was largely for business, I had several various odd jobs to do, including some content creation stuff and meeting with a few brands regarding sponsorships on behalf of a couple ULR’s. We arrived at KHP on Friday morning, and much of the day was spent doing the latter. It was a lot of talking to people, but it was also nice to see some old friends again and put faces with the names of some newer contacts. It also gave me a chance to scope out some of the new products from various brands, or see some things in person for the first time. More on that later.

On Friday evening we had our second annual Kentucky tattoo appointment… well maybe our first actual appointment, since last year we did a walk in for those spur of the moment Pat Your Horse tattoos. This year we actually planned ahead, had drawings, and made an actual appointment at an actual nice place. My left forearm is now sporting a most-cute Presto face, complete with emo forelock.

After that we stopped by the Ride iQ happy hour to say hi to that group and grab a snack. Or rather, I couldn’t get to the snack table without rudely crashing through a couple conversations, so I texted Kyle Carter and asked him to pass me a cookie, and he chunked it so hard that if it had made contact I would have died. I ducked and it hit the ground behind me instead. Note to self, Kyle’s got an arm on him. (also please note that I know Kyle and we banter all the time, he was joking, not being mean, in case that isn’t obvious in the re-telling of this Near Death Cookie Experience story). I’m not sure anyone knew why I got a cookie randomly chunked at me, but I did eat the cookie anyway except for the part that had some mud on it. It all worked out.

Saturday morning we sat and waited for approximately 900 years for the crepe guy to open (he’s never open before 9am and it kills me every time, but the crepes are so damn good) while I mapped out my strategy for the day. I had riders that I needed to get XC content of for brands, so I needed to figure out where I needed to be and when, and draw up a schedule accordingly. My first one was out on course early, but I had decent gaps in between, so we spent much of the day traipsing around the 4* course and the 5* course, trying to cover as much of it as possible.

And you know what came in hella-handy? My amazing telescoping stool. We had to do like 25 demonstrations of them to various people, they were a big hit. Also 10 out of 10 for having a stool, my back was much less angry by the end of the day this year than it was last year. Very convenient to have a place to sit no matter where we were, especially since it spat rain on and off all day. Mine had LED lights too, which makes for a fun party trick. The stools were the absolute MVP of the day, will never do Kentucky XC day without one again.

On Saturday after XC we had our Patreon group get-together at our campground spot and it was awesome. I remain completely blown away by that community of people, they’re cool AF and really fun and easy to talk to. Our get-togethers are a real highlight of the trip for me!

Sunday morning I really wanted to see the jog because there were a couple horses I was interested to see up close (for breeding reasons, I like their sires). Plus, ya know, never gonna pass up a chance to stalk Mason up close and personal.

I remain convinced that he is the most attractive animal in all the land, and he looked fit and happy and was very well-presented.

Which is more than I can say for a couple other people. If you ever find yourself at a trot-up, I advise standing over where the horses come up and leave, rather than watching the actual jog strip itself. You see some real hinky shit over there. Like… people who clearly know the horse is lame but are trying their level best to hide it. And then riders pitching a fit about it. Very high profile people. It was gross.

After the jog we went back to the trade fair for a while, to get one last perusal in and chat with a couple more people. I was on a tight budget this year but I did get this super cute bracelet ($20 and they engrave it on the spot, I mean come on I was targeted), a shirt, and some horse boots. I felt like there were more deals this year than last year, although not on a lot of things I really needed, which is probably for the best.

There were several things in the trade fair that caught my eye though, so I figured they’re worth mentioning. Majyk Equipe always unveils some kind of new product at LRK3DE, and this year they actually had several. A new line of showjumping boots that I thought were STUNNING

Plus a new color combo of their XC boots, gray with blue vents, and new boot bags and backpacks. The prices on all of it was super reasonable too. I didn’t have room in my luggage for the boot bag, but I will be getting one STAT. It’s got a helmet compartment that comes off and the bottom of it is waterproof. It was only like $80, too, which I thought was quite nice compared to similar products, especially considering how well-made it is and how many features it has.

I also got to see the Eventing Nation pads in person… I helped design those! One side has an EN logo patch and the other side has a #goeventing patch. They look great, and so do the new Ecogold Breeze pads. They’re a lot lighter-weight and thinner than the standard Ecogold.

Last but not least, if we’re talking about innovation and fun new products to keep an eye on, my vote goes to ARRO helmets. They’re a new brand from New Zealand, just now starting full production, but the features on these things are really amazing, I’ve not seen anything quite like it. They’ve got MIPS, they’re SNELL rated, the brims easily come on and off (so one helmet can be a skull cap, have a regular brim, or have a wide brim, depending on your needs at the time), the buckle is like nothing I’ve seen before, the shell is super high quality and strong, and they have a ton of lining options to help customize fit. There’s even an option to attach a face guard. They’re just really really cool and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this company, you can tell it was designed by riders for riders.

We had similar seats for showjumping as last time, which were great, at least right up until the wind picked up and it started raining. Y’all, I was cold. I have gone full Florida lizard and even with 3 jackets on I was an absolute popsicle. That’s alright though, we survived. Plus all 4 horses on my Eventing Manager team finished in the top 15 (sometimes it works out to pick all your sentimental favorites based on their breeding. Not often, but sometimes.) so I won two of my leagues. Heck yeah.

All in all it was another great trip to Kentucky (and a very fruitful one I think, I got a lot done!) and I can’t wait to head back again next year.