I figured I should do a recap post of the long weekend and everything that happened while Hillary was here, with getting the horses settled and my shit unpacked. But then I also figured that no one really wants to hear about my shit getting unpacked or the mundane tasks and errands associated with a move, so let’s talk about the fun bits of what we did while she was here instead.

It felt like we were busy doing shit from sun-up to sundown every day, and well… we were. But we made sure that the first couple hours of the day were set aside for the horses and riding. Partly because it’s a fun way to start the day before you have to get into all the drudgery, and partly because I think it’s important to keep the horses moving and keep their routine, and to be able to get on them and feel how they’re feeling.

We did a light stretchy hack with Gemma and Henry on Friday morning, and they both felt as good as they looked. Which was really nice because in addition to the long trip they’d also had a couple weeks off before that. Gemma went around like she hadn’t missed a day or traveled 1100 miles.

Henry looked shockingly good to me too. Usually time off and travel make him look stiff and weak really quickly, but nope… he was quite spry. We just did a few minutes of flatwork to get them moving and then went for a walk around the farm.

We had a bunch of errands to run that day (including picking up our awesome new-to-us Jump4Joy chevron from Kyle Carter, who brought it back from Kentucky for me, where Jen had brought it from Indiana… this jump is well-traveled), and we had to stop by Seminole and Tack Shack to get some things for the horses, which obviously got slightly sidetracked.

After that we had to run out to Tractor Supply, which is very conveniently located around the corner from a BOMB little ice cream place that has some of the best Italian Ice ever. It’s only 15 minutes from the barn which is information I probably didn’t need but will definitely use (frequently) over the summer.

The rest of the day was work and sweat and carrying things. After we finally got dinner and got settled at home and were about to go to bed, a big ol’ storm rolled in out of nowhere. Out we sprinted to bring the horses in, which was… super fun to do at almost midnight. They were pissed to be inside, but once we got back to the house the skies REALLY opened up and there was tons of lightning, so… it was the right choice even if they were mad.

On Saturday morning we were up early again to turn them out and clean stalls, then Hillary got on Gemma and I got on none other than everyone’s favorite Noodle.

Lord he’s tall. And long. Just a lot of horse and surface area. I forget sometimes, especially since Gemma and Henry are both a good hand smaller and waaaaaay more compact. It’s like being on top of an elephant, but a really nice elephant. I didn’t bother lunging him or anything, I just tacked him up and got on, and away he went like no biggie. I hadn’t ridden him since last September, and he hadn’t been ridden at all since October, so I was pleased that he pretty much got right to business. He’s a good kid in the ways that count, even if he drives me crazy with his continued removal of his fly boots ALL THE DAMN TIME.

I only trotted him for a few minutes since he doesn’t have much muscling or topline left to speak of, and then I asked Hillary if she wanted to take him for a spin. Zero arm twisting was required, and she got on and trotted him a few times each way too. He’s definitely a very different feeling from the other two – aside from being about 45 miles long he’s also got a lot a lot more suspension in his gaits and requires a lot of core strength to keep together.

Once we were done with the kids I put out a couple jumps for Hillary to pop Henry over, including setting up our new chevron out in the field so you could ride out of the ring and jump it. Henry was absolutely delighted to be doing his thing and happily christened the new jump.

Before we arrived we had already scheduled bodywork for the horses on Saturday mid-morning with Jen Oliver, who is fantastic. She did all 3 of them and spent some time chatting with us about them and what she was seeing and feeling.

Despite the long trip she thought they all felt pretty good. There were some tight spots here and there and some knots to work out, as expected, but generally it was really not bad considering their journey. A comfy trailer ride (it never ceases to amaze me how much better my horses look and feel after traveling long distances in a straight stall vs a slant) and then lots of turnout time seemed to do the trick.

After that we had an afternoon of more errands and unpacking (there is no end to any of it, I think), and then had a quick hour or so free before we were meeting someone to talk about training. So ya know… we headed over to WEC. Because why not. Well ok I’ll tell you why not – there was a massive car show going on at the same time and therefore it was crawling with muggles, but we quickly hit some of the main shops anyway. Technically I grabbed something for the barn at FarmVet so it wasn’t an entirely self-indulgent trip, and at least we were quick about it, but… ya know. I don’t feel bad about it.

Sunday was pretty much the same thing on repeat. Ride in the morning, then work and errands. Pretty sure I’ve put more miles on my truck in the last week than in the last 2 years. The good news is at least I kinda know my way around pretty well by now since I’ve seen most of Gainesville and Ocala and Williston and everything in between by this point.

We rode in the morning again, just another light stretching ride and then hacked out. Presto met his official fan club (aka the yearling colts) and now really wants to know why he can’t go live in their pasture. God, can you imagine what it would be like if he had 9 little yearling dumbasses as minions? The farm would implode.

We were pretty freaking exhausted by the afternoon, after days of running around and doing shit, so we gave ourselves a few hours of luxury to sit inside and watch the Badminton cross country replay. It was definitely something. How about that XC performance from Mason (aka Presto’s brother from another mother) though? That boy just romped right around there for fun! After having watched him come up the ranks for so many years it’s really fun to see him doing so well especially at something like Badders.

Monday was Hillary’s last day here, and we opted for just an easy road hack with the horses in the morning. Figured it was best to do that for the first time when both of us were here. Presto was a little snorty about everything but Gemma and Henry enjoyed it. One great thing about living here is that people passing you on the road in vehicles don’t go ZOOMING past, or honk at you, or whatever the fuck else. They know horses, so they slow down and they’re friendly about it. Blew my mind a little after so many years of road hacking in Texas, where you never know how many people are gonna try to deliberately run you over.

After that we did a little more stuff around the barn, ran a few more errands, and then it was sadly time for me to drop Hillary off at the airport. Big sads. So many. She tha real MVP though for giving up an entire week of her life to help me move myself and the horses. There’s no way in hell I could have done it without her. I still have plenty to do here on my own, and riding 3 horses requires some schedule juggling, but it’s manageable now since we got a lot of the big stuff taken care of in those first few days.

Now I’m flying solo! There’s still a lot going on this week, which I’ll catch you up on with next week’s recap post, but that brings you up to speed for moving weekend at least…

It’s officially official – myself and the horses are Florida residents!

We left Texas last Wednesday, overnighting in Pensacola, and arriving in Ocala on Thursday afternoon. It worked out really well that the barn owner in Texas, Rejan (who is also moving full-time to her Florida property down near Wellington) had a 4 horse trailer and only one horse to bring down with her. Their trailer is a nice big airy insulated head to head complete with fans and all the horsey comforts, so my 3 kiddos were able to ride in luxury with hay and water in front of them at all times. It was probably the best any of them have ever traveled.

I drove my truck and trailer behind them, so we had a little caravan going. My poor truck and trailer were crammed full of STUFF – mostly t!ny h0use accoutrements (like the stairs, tank, etc), all our tack, various farm equipment, some trunks, etc. My Titan has been a loyal servant the entire time I’ve owned it but let’s be real, she is 11 years old and has 161k miles on her at this point. She doesn’t really tow over these long distances as well as she used to, at least not when she’s fully loaded down like that. True to form though she did her level best, and she got us through… it was the trailer that caused us issues.

The trouble started pretty early on when we were at our first gas stop on the far side of Houston. I thought one of the tires looked a bit low (I had checked them all the day before) so I drove around to the air thingy to check it. When I stopped over there I could see a spot on the tire that was a blowout waiting to happen, so we changed that tire out to the spare. We almost made it the rest of the day without any further drama, but then when we only had about an hour to go until our layover, that spare tire blew out in the middle of nowhere Mississippi. It was just too old – I should have replaced it before the trip but didn’t even think about in with everything else going on. We called ahead to the trailer with the horses to let them know, and together we limped to the next exit and off the interstate.

We made a plan to send Hillary and the BO’s husband Justin with my trailer to a tire place a few miles away that (very luckily) was still open and had a couple tires that would work. We slapped the previous about-to-blow-but-hasn’t-yet tire back on and away they crawled. The BO and I went on ahead with the horses, crossing through the tip of Alabama and into Florida. We split up that way because my name was on all the health paperwork for the horses, so I had to be there with them at the ag stop in Florida. We got through the ag stop quickly and made it to our layover in Pensacola just after dark. The horses had ended up spending about 12 hours on the trailer, but all of them came off looking bright and happy and hydrated.

In the meantime, Hillary and Justin took my card and got two new tires for my trailer. It was honestly pretty lucky that the whole fiasco happened when and where it did… at least there was a tire place not too far away and they were still open. They were able to get it in and get the new tires on it quickly, so Hillary and Justin were only about 30 minutes behind us by the time we’d done the ag stop.

We got the horses unloaded in Pensacola, bedded down, fed, the trailer cleaned out and prepped for the next day, and then headed to the hotel. By that point it was 10pm so we pretty much just showered and passed out. We were back in the truck at 6:30 the next morning to go feed and hook back up, then make our way to Ocala. Rejan and Justin were going to drop my 3 off and then proceed the other 3-4 hours down to Wellington with Quinnie. We knew she wouldn’t be very happy to be left in the trailer alone so we planned a very quick unloading… essentially we just dropped the ramp, took my 3 out, closed the ramp, and away they went. Quinnie is nothing if not intelligent with an excellent sense of self-preservation, so she quickly settled down and rode the rest of the way just fine solo.

As for my 3, they were VERY HAPPY to be out of the trailer after 2 days of driving.

They were a little pissed at being separated into individual turnouts, but sorry kids, thems the breaks. Henry is way too mean to Presto and Presto drives Gemma nuts and Gemma makes Henry clingy, so… that’s just how it is. Quinnie was the only thing that made that group dynamic work. It’s fine though, because their paddocks aren’t really big enough (or are so shady that the grass isn’t quite as lush) to support multiple horses on them without murdering the grass. This way is better for everyone.

After a few gleeful minutes of galloping they all settled down fine, and we made sure all 3 of them knew and understood their waterers.

Then Hillary and I had some quick errands to run before stuff started to close for the day. We went to the feed store to get hay and grain since mine eat different stuff than what the racehorses get. We also picked up a few little things for the tack room and house, hit Horse & Hounds for dinner, and then stopped at Publix to pick up some groceries.

That takes us up through last Thursday, arrival day! We made it, the horses made it… everything is now officially here in Florida. As for everything else that’s been going on since then, that’s a story for another day.

That was… epic. There’s just no other freakin word that can fully encompass the experience that was LRK3DE this past weekend. We’ve been planning this trip for a while and it got delayed thanks to covid and then I considered cancelling this year altogether with the move, but man I’m so glad I didn’t.

I don’t have time this week to give a detailed play by play of the whole weekend and everything we did. Today I’m busy working and packing, and we’re rolling out of here bright and early tomorrow morning, so this is probably the only post you’ll get from me this week at all. We’ll hit the details at some point later on, but for now we can touch on the main points.

The way I see it, you really make the trip to LRK3DE for a few main reasons: the competition itself, the shopping, the comradery, and the memories. This year really delivered on all counts.

First – the competition. Look, maybe I’m a massive traitor, but if Michael Jung is in the house, I will always be rooting for him. Watching him ride is just such a pleasure, you can learn so much from sitting there and observing what he does. He’s a master of the sport and I was absolutely delighted to see him win. I mean… maybe he didn’t have to trounce the Americans quite so soundly (18 points between him and the top American – OUCH) but he absolutely deserved it. Once again, he gave us a master class in all 3 phases. Last time I was in Kentucky I watched him win aboard Rocana, and seeing him do it again on Chipmunk was equally as thrilling. It was also fun to see Pippa. My own personal favorite horse/performance of the weekend though? Palm Crescent. I’ll take one of him to go, please. No need to wrap it. He impressed me last year in Maryland and continued to impress me even more here. He’s got so much try in him.

On to the shopping. Ouch. All I can really say is ouch. I went there looking for one particular thing (a sheepskin monoflap girth for Gemma) and it felt like I came home with everything BUT that. It wasn’t for lack of trying though, I looked in every single freakin vendor and didn’t find anything that was exactly what I wanted or not 9 million dollars (possible slight exaggeration). I did find plenty of other things though, but basically everything was on sale so I don’t feel that bad. And a lot of it was clothes, which I do kinda need more of since I got rid of most of my clothes when I packed the t!ny h0use. Whoops. Marie Kondo ain’t got nothing on me when I’m in the mood to get rid of shit. I’m pleased with the things I got in Kentucky to help fill that void, though.

The final tally is:

• 5 t-shirts: Majyk Equipe, Ride iQ, a TB-centric short sleeve, a TB-centric long sleeve, and a Mango Bay “Beware the Mare” short sleeve.
• 2 sunshirts: one navy and white, one gray, both from 70 Degrees (really love this brand, it’s gonna be dangerous)
• 1 jacket: a black mesh jacket from 70 Degrees that I’m weirdly obsessed with, it’s like a scrim sheet for humans.
• a pair of breeches because damn you Harcour for making the prettiest dark green and putting GLITTER PIPING on them. I was powerless.
• a lightweight down vest that was on clearance at Free Ride for a great price and it’s packable so I refuse to feel shame about this since I sold or donated all my other vests.
• a Ride iQ hat
• a black sparkly Majyk Equipe XC helmet cover (it was free with purchase, so it really doesn’t even count)
• a black XC Majyk Equipe pad, the new style one that just came out with the built in half pad. The fabric is so nice and lightweight I thought it might be the perfect Florida pad for Presto. We shall see.
• navy and silver Majyk Equipe XC boots for Gemma. Look… I really wanted the navy and silver ones when that first limited edition came out however long ago, but I waffled for too long and ended up being just hours late on snagging some, they sold out so fast. So when I trotted my happy ass down to the Majyk Equipe tent and saw that they had restocked that color combo, I just didn’t really have any choice did I? Henry’s XC boots are too big for Gemma anyway. We’ll call it serendipitous and leave it at that. They’re beautiful.
• I also snagged an OTTB iron-on patch that’ll go on something for Gemma at some point.

The freebie stuff that places were handing out was hit or miss. I got some cool stickers and several new pens (I always need pens) and a couple chapsticks and some nice little microfiber towels that I will definitely use. Some places had hats and keychains and cups and all kinds of stuff, but I didn’t need any of that and wasn’t sure if it would fit in my bag anyway. All in all I’m pretty pleased with my final haul. Definitely not what I planned on getting but ya know… here we are. I also got to sit in some saddles (Arion and Voltaire in particular) and got a couple contacts to try to work out a new jump saddle once I get to Ocala, so hopefully that ends up being fruitful.

Next up – the legendary LRK3DE comradery. It was like a girl’s weekend on steroids. I went with old friends, made new friends, saw tons of people I haven’t seen in forever (it always astounds me how small the horse world is sometimes), do some business networking for BRC, and met people in person that I’ve known on the internet forever. I somehow have SEVEN new contacts in my phone, and I dunno how even. I’m generally not the most social person to say the least but when you’re in Horse Girl Heaven it’s a little different. I had a fucking blast with our friend group and with so many other people as well. You can’t possibly ask for better company. Nothing bonds you more than blackout level shopping and 4 straight days of sweaty chafing ass cheeks.

And last but most definitely not least, the biggest reason you come to LRK3DE is for the memories. I feel like I have so many stories from this weekend that I could literally write a novel in trying to retell them. I laughed so much and so hard that my abs were hurting the entire time (and still are, btw). We did ridiculous shit, indulged in all that is horsey, and let the rest of the world just fade away for a few days. We went on course walks, stalked a crepe vendor, lost an RV key in someone’s underwear, crammed a couple jumps into an SUV (shoutout to Jen, the jump fairy), drank a fairly obscene amount of cream soda to wash down what felt like a few buckets of cheese curds, hiked from one end of the park to the other about 100 times, and sat in the Kentucky bluegrass and sunshine just enjoying the sport and the horses and the return to something that felt blissfully like normalcy after two years of covid. Oh, and maybe we got some permanent souvenirs.

I’ll tell the tattoo story in it’s entirety when I have time to do it proper justice, I promise. The weekend was quite the adventure, that’s for sure.

Until then – to everyone I saw at Kentucky, it was fabulous to see you again. To everyone I didn’t see, I hope to catch you next time. To Hillary, you remain an impeccable travel companion/enabler/instigator. To my other two RV roommates Holly and Lindsey – never at any point did I want to suffocate either of you with a pillow, and I can’t think of any higher praise than that (although I fear Lindsey may never be the same again after a weekend with us). To those who weren’t able to make it to Kentucky this year, get your asses there next year and do some ridiculous shit with us, please. What else are horse friends for?

Jumper or reiner? Quinlee hasn’t decided yet.

Happy Friday!

I keep getting tagged in this meme that’s been making it’s way around social media…

Which is totally fair, because I have indeed fallen in love with a chestnut mare. I mean it’s still very early days of course, but Gemma continues to impress me. Don’t get me wrong, she is definitely a chestnut mare complete with all of her opinions and judgments, but let’s be honest Henry is also a chestnut mare on the inside so I’ve had years of experience with that by now. Gemma has yet to throw anything at me that Henry has not. Their sass levels are fairly equal.

It’s been years since I’ve had a mare (not by deliberate choice, that’s just how things worked out) and I’m reminded why I’ve always tended to gravitate toward them more than geldings. Gemma is so intelligent, and she definitely has decided that I’m her person. She likes attention and her humans, as long as you don’t do ridiculous things like try to pet her in the wrong places or come without cookies. I can identify with that.

Under saddle she just gets better and better with every ride. I’ve never had one off the track that “got” the flatwork as easily as she does. She’s pretty steady in the contact now, the leg yields are decent, the shoulder-in is coming along, and she’s offering the beginnings of a stretchy trot. We’ve been adding in more transitions too, both within the gait and between gaits. The canter transitions still aren’t great but they’re much improved for sure, and every one we do is a bit better than the last. She’s already pretty fun to flat, and the more you ask of her the better she is. She’s so clever and can figure out what you’re asking pretty quickly. Definitely different from Henry, who has never been very good at dealing with any kind of pressure on the flat and gets frustrated/worried easily. Gemma has none of that.

I’m now having a lot of regrets about not entering her in RRP, because even if she wasn’t ready for the jumping stuff I think she could have gone and done well in the dressage. One of the first orders of business when we get to Florida will be having the saddle fitter out to fit my Custom dressage saddle to her.

My jumping saddle doesn’t really fit her either (BECAUSE WHY WOULD IT) which… it doesn’t fit me anymore either, but my bank account is so not ready to talk about that. I think I’ll end up keeping that jump saddle because it fits Henry, and then get something else for Gemma and Presto. Luckily those two are pretty similarly shaped so I think I should be able to find something that I could make work for both of them. I can’t wrap my brain around that particular very expensive thing at the moment though… gimme a few weeks.

I’ve also jumped her a couple times at home now too. Yep, that makes three whole jumping sessions under her girth now… guess you could say things are getting pretty serious. Really though she also shows her cleverness in that area too. She isn’t always sure what to do with her feet or her body, but she’s always willing to try. She hasn’t even so much as blinked about anything I’ve pointed her at – flowers, the pig fillers, or even the little wannabe liverpool tarp. My poles are also only 8′ wide, which isn’t the easiest on a wiggly green horse, but she canters right on down there and she tries.

We haven’t jumped much, or done anything particularly formal, but once we get to Florida we’ll make a real plan for her and put a bit more structure in her training program. Gymnastics and cavalettis would do her a lot of good I think, so she can learn to be a little more methodical and focused with her feet.

For now though, she’s gonna get a mini-vacay. Yesterday was officially our last ride here in Texas for the horses. Today I have a lot of errands to run and work to wrap up, and then Hillary and I leave at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow for LRK3DE. Once we get back from Kentucky we’ve got one day to pack up the rest of my stuff (which is pretty much just the horse’s stuff at this point) and then we’re loading up and heading out to Florida.

It’s been a little surreal this past week, watching everything slowly either get packed up or thrown away or sold off. We jumped the horses on Sunday, and then yesterday I sold the majority of my jumps. There are already enough jumps on the property in FL so I’m only taking the standards that are in the best condition, and all of my square poles. The rest of it wasn’t really worth taking nor do I have the space to bring them with me anyway, so I sold it all as a cheap package deal to someone who hopefully will fix them up a bit and be able to get as much use out of them as much as I did. Those jumps might not have been fancy or beautiful but they served me just fine for years. It was the end of an era loading them up in to someone else’s trailer though, and now seeing the jump field sitting empty once again.

Times they are about to be changin.

But first… KENTUCKY! I wrapped up my last bit of writing yesterday with the TB-centric piece for RRP/EN, so I think I’m done with all the actual work stuff. Mostly.

I’m beyond ready for a fun weekend in Kentucky, even if it looks like our odds of getting rained on are fairly high. If you’ll be in attendance keep your eyes peeled for people wearing the Breed.Ride.Compete. logo – come say hi if you see us!