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We did in fact make it out of Austin and over to Atlanta for our connecting flight with no problems. However, a slight schedule conflict with our French contact had us doing a little bit of last minute tap dancing with our itinerary. 

Basically we just swapped our first two days… instead of heading straight to Bruges we got in our rental and drove over to the Normandy region of France. We were able to change our hotel reservations to make it work, so aside from giving my OCD a serious work out, it all ended up being perfectly fine.

We stopped along the way at a petrol station and got what was, hands down, the best gas station food I’ve ever had. A big, super cheesy croque monsieur dripping with sauce. Omg.

We got up into the Rouen area around noon and stopped off first to see a jumper pony stallion, Usandro. He’s ridiculously adorable and a true little powerhouse jumping bean. Also super sweet. He may be available via frozen on the US market soon… stay tuned. 😉 

Then we were off to another rider’s barn(s) to see all of his young horses. I got a bit sunburned traipsing up and down the hilly pastures of Normandy, looking at ridiculously well bred French showjumpers. Definitely have had worse days.

Now we’re at the hotel taking a quick break to clean up before a quick stop to see more ponies, then dinner. I am beyond ready to SLEEP, but the jet lag is worth it. 

Texas has been an exciting place for the past few days. Hurricane Harvey quickly turned into BAD business for the coast and the Houston area, blowing the earlier projections out of the water and becoming a Cat 4 by the time it made landfall. The real problem is the flooding from the now basically stationary storm, dumping literally FEET of rain into parts of that area so far.

Luckily everyone I know in the area either evacuated or is still faring ok to this point. It’s far from over, since the rain is expected to continue for the rest of the week, but hopefully everyone remains ok. It’s heartbreaking to watch the destruction on TV (not gonna lie, I feel a special kind of fury every time I see a dog or a horse). If you want to know how you can help, click here to find out more.

Over here in Austin we’ve gotten quite soaked from the outer edges of the storm, but nothing like what they’re dealing with. At my house we’re up to about 7″ of rain, with more to come, but we’re on higher ground with better drainage, so there hasn’t been any flooding to speak of in our area. It’s yucky out, and the wind was crazy for the first day or so, but that’s about it. Henry is warm and dry and tucked into his stall with his hay. The barn is on top of a hill and farm’s soil drains well, so no problems there.

Of course, both Houston airports are closed. On Friday I was starting to get pretty anxious about our Europe trip. It was already quite clear that we would not be able to leave from Houston. By mid-day Delta finally extended their travel waiver through the 28th, meaning I could change to another airport without paying the change fee. Of course, they still wanted to charge me a “fare difference” of 1k. Hilarious bunch of assholes.

After some minor panic on my part, a friend of mine was able to use her pull as an elite member to get them to not only waive the fare difference, but to let me reroute through Austin. Originally when I was booking this trip, leaving through Austin was A LOT more expensive than leaving through Houston. I’d have even been happy to leave through Dallas, honestly, but leaving through Austin is obviously waaaay more convenient. I don’t have to drive 3 hours to another city and pay to park my truck for a week. So ultimately we dodged a bullet with that (THANK YOU ANNA) and kinda came out ahead in the end.

Our flight is supposed to leave around noon today, and we layover in Atlanta before hopping the flight to Brussels. Hopefully we’re able to get out on time, or close to it, and don’t have too many travel issues. Between all the stress with work lately, and then the anxiety of the past week worrying about the weather and whether or not this trip was actually going to happen, I’m in serious need of some mental downtime. And waffles. Lots of waffles.

I’ll do my best to keep posting here and on Instagram for as long as I have access to WiFi. So, hopefully the next time you guys hear from me, it’ll be from our hotel in Bruges. Fingers crossed, anyway!

For those of you who haven’t noticed, a hurricane is currently bearing down on Texas. Well, technically it’s not quite a hurricane yet, but they’re expecting it to be a category one or category two by the time it makes landfall tomorrow. Of course, it’s heading pretty much directly at Houston. I live in Austin, so typically this wouldn’t be much of a problem for me. We’re supposed to get a lot of rain, but that’s about it.

But guess where I’m supposed to be flying out of to head to Europe? And guess which direction Trainer lives, where Henry was supposed to go while I’m gone?

Yeah. Pretty convinced the hurricane is my fault.

Henry’s “week of learnin'” has already been cancelled, because if he’s gonna sit in a stall for a week he might as well do it here instead of there. That’s going to leave me scrambling a bit when I get back, to get him ready for our mid-September horse trial, but it’s not the end of the world. At this point I’m much more concerned at how Houston is going to fare during all this. Mostly because I have a lot of friends down there and I’m hoping they’re able to adequately prepare. But also, if I may be selfish and have a major #firstworldproblem about my European Dream Vacation for a minute, I’m not so sure my flight out of Houston is going to happen.

It’s supposed to make landfall late Friday, and then basically just stall out and sit there all weekend. Hence the crazy projected rain totals. My flight is mid-day on Monday, which will at least miss the worst of the like… HURRICANE parts of the hurricane. But by that point I’m betting everything will be pretty well flooded, and it’s not really supposed to stop storming until Monday night.

Aside from the whole “driving to Houston in a flood” thing and the “strong thunderstorms and heavy rain” forecast thing, our layover in Atlanta is only 50 minutes. If we don’t leave Houston on time, we ain’t making it, and the next flight out of there is a whole 24 hours later. I called Delta yesterday to see about switching to an Austin to Atlanta flight instead… I can see the flight available, and it has plenty of seats open, and it would get me to Atlanta in plenty of time for my connection to Brussels. But of course they haven’t issued a travel advisory for anything past the 26th yet, so she said my only option at this point is to pay $8,000 to switch my flight.

HAHAHAHAHA you’re funny, Delta agent. This was a $368 flight. Total. Round trip.

So all I can do now is wait and see if they issue a travel advisory. But of course, Michelle is flying out of Midland, and literally the only connection from there to Atlanta takes her through Houston. Therefore I’ve kind of just already resigned myself to the fact that we’re likely to end up getting to Brussels a day late. Which effs up our timeline a bit, but we’d still be there in plenty of time for Bundeschampionate. It just means we’d have to cut off the whole France leg of our trip, basically.

Of course, for me it’s mostly just an inconvenience (unless I really do have to drive to Houston in a flood, then maybe I should invest in a boat). For the people in the storm’s path, they could have some serious issues to contend with. I hope everyone down in that area who is susceptible to flooding is able to go ahead and get their horses out now… I know there are lots of barns in Austin that can take some in, if needed (contact me if you’re looking for somewhere to go). Everybody else, batten down the hatches!

At this point there’s not a lot I can do about it except wait and see what happens, and hope that this thing isn’t as monstrous as they’re saying. Let’s hope it ends up weaker and faster-moving than they’re predicting at the moment.

I just want to GTFO of here and go pet some European ponies, man.

 

 

 

Guess what? It’s still hot here. After however many days over 100 degrees (I think I stopped counting at 30) so far this year, it’s to the point where it seems like it’s just always been this hot, will always be this hot, and therefore there’s no point in even complaining about it anymore. Hopefully in another month or so it’ll finally start to cool off. Like, below 95 degrees, because no matter what the weatherman insists on saying, you can’t call it a “cold front” when the high is still 98.

When I made my latest Riding Warehouse order last week, as I was clicking through I happened to land on my Past Orders page, and leafing through them made me laugh a bit. I definitely tend to buy the same things over and over, especially during the warmer months. I guess you could call them Henry’s summer essentials.

Pyranha fly spray

Henry must be really tasty or something, because Pyranha is the only brand of fly spray that actually gives him any relief from the bugs for any extended period of time. I used to exclusively use the oil-based version in the yellow container, but this year I tried the water-based version and it worked just as well for him, without the oily residue that the yellow one can leave. Our fly season really is from like March until November, so I just buy this stuff by the gallon to make it more economical.

Himalayan salt block

Henry has one of these in his stall year-round, but he really really loves it in the summer. He stands there after dinner, eyes closed, in front of his fan, licking his salt block, almost like he’s in a weird zen state. I go through about one a month during the summer, but he always drinks well and sweats well, so I’m not complaining. With these I don’t feel the need to put him on any additional electrolytes during the hot months. I tend to buy these like 3-4 at a time so I have a constant supply.

Cashel fly mask

This is definitely an essential for Henry, although I haven’t had to order one in a while. By some miracle Henry is on summer number THREE with the same fly mask. It’s finally starting to look a little frayed around the eyes and the elastic on the strap has stretched out, so we’ll probably replace it next year. I’m pretty thrilled to have gotten three years out of a pretty cheap mask though (and they’re on sale right now – only $15!).

Zephyr’s Garden anti-fungal spray

Typically I get this stuff from Teddy’s Tack Trunk, and the bottle I just got a couple months ago is already on it’s last few drops. I use it every single day to keep all the various summer skin funks and itches away, and it works fabulously for Henry. This stuff and fly spray are probably the most used items in my tack trunk. I’m also interested in trying out the Leave it Bee spray from the same company, at least for his face (during allergy season he tends to rub his face a lot), but haven’t yet.  It has tea tree too, which seems to be the magic elixir for Henry.

German horse muffins

This is Henry’s main contribution to the list… he wouldn’t let me put up his “essentials” without including cookies. He loves these soft treats (like Stud Muffins or Uncle Jimmy’s), and I’m a fan of ones that I can easily tear into smaller chunks. At $22 for a 6lb bag, compared to $20 for a 3lb bucket of Uncle Jimmy’s, or $28 for a 6lb bag of Stud Muffins, these are the best value for this type of treat, and Henry LOVES them.

 

What are your favorite products to help you and your horse get through the summer?

 

I’m currently in the middle of a week-long barnsitting stint, and this time Henry got to come with me!

After XC schooling on Saturday we loaded up and immediately headed down to the farm. Henry seemed momentarily confused at being unloaded at a place that wasn’t home, but he took one look around and then dove straight for the grass. Priorities.

He was settling in just fine until the resident hussy retired broodmare Quinnie decided that he is the new hot young stud in town and boy does she want to make an Anglo-Trakehner with him. The nickering and hollering across the barn was intense, and has given Henny an overinflated ego. He became completely infatuated with her pretty much instantly. Still is. Real freaking annoying, but at least the screaming has died down a bit.

Other horses generally don’t like Henry very much, so I think he’s just beside himself that someone seems to love him. I tried to explain to him that this isn’t love, she’s really only after one thing, but he’s not listening to me. Kids, ya know? They gotta find out for themselves.

The other horses go out during the day and Henry goes out at night, so every time there’s a turnout swap, it’s accompanied with a fifteen minutes of screaming back and forth. I finally had to just close the door to the run off of his stall, because he would go stand out there in the hot sun ALL DAY LONG and stare off into the distance at her, causing himself to get super hot. Hey idiot, there’s a nice big fan inside for your heat-intolerant ass!

Drama queen antics aside, it’s been fun so far. I really really really love being able to look out the window and see my horse, or go sponge him off every couple hours during the heat of the day, or do basically whatever I want with him, whenever I want to do it. There’s a lot to be said for that.