Bounce winning at Chatt Hills.
I have received the friendly ‘push’ that my blog here is past due. I have a good defense. I have been a smidge busy.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, my childhood was filled with dreams of an Equestrian Career highlighted with bedazzled equine clothing, jet set horse shows, shinning mounts and glamorous evenings. I reserve hope that the show jumping and dressage worlds are like that.
Ten days ago our house was bulldozed. We live on a beautiful little farm close to town which is just perfect for our business and wonderful for our personal life. However, we bought it about five years ago with a wee house on it that was over a century old. It had begun to fall apart and estimates to fix and add an addition towered in the $120,000 range, so the rational choice was to build anew. It may have been the rational choice, but it was not the easiest emotional choice for me. No one else in the family seemed to mind, however. Liam was only very disappointed that there was no wrecking ball involved, like in his books in school, and I think Leslie was hopeful too that the wrecking ball would come, preferably with Miley Cyrus riding it. Instead of our adorable little cottage, there is now a big mud hole with a POD beside it where all our belongings live, as we moved down the road to a friend’s house living out of two suitcases until she comes back to Florida in the fall and then god knows where we will hang our hats.
At the moment, Leslie and I are sharing a twin bed and Liam and his Cairn Thomas sleep on a pad on the floor at the end of the bed. Before you go all ‘child services’ on me; this is where Liam wants to sleep. In a new house he does not want to sleep at the other end of the house where the other bedroom is and he usually ends up in bed with us by 4:00 a.m. anyways, which in our king bed was never such a big deal, but in this twin is leading us to have all sorts of interesting back and neck drama in the mornings, as it is a bit like Twister in our bed between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m.
Four days ago we packed up eight horses from our barn and headed to an event just outside of Atlanta named Chatt Hills. Top notch facility, one of the best events out there now in North America. I suggest you all get there at some point, as they hold dressage and jumper shows as well. So we got horses, we got clients (young riders and adult am’s), and don’t forget the four-year-old human and one staff. It makes for exciting times.
Liam and friend at Chatt Hills.
The hardest part, to be fair, is Liam. I don’t like passing him off to people that don’t really want him and when I ride he pretty much turns into one of those koala bears that were all the fad back in the ’80s that clipped onto your clothes. Remember those? For some reason, all day long Liam may be annoyed with me, or ignoring me, but the second I put on a hard hat he is attached to my leg and cannot live without me. That is really hard on so many levels. Really irritating before dressage and show jumping; really tough before cross country. Anyhoo, we were all good, Leslie was first and second on his two, I won on my four-year-old and our students also did really well so all in all a successful outing.
On the Sunday of the event, Leslie flew out from the Atlanta airport to Indiana to teach a camp (as he does every year) so it was all about me to get the horses and four-year-old home. Compared to a year ago, this went swimmingly well, as last year Leslie being an awesome husband, was being thoughtful and had decided to fill the truck with DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) before he left for the airport, but being distracted by students managed to pour the entire thing of DEF into the diesel tank instead. After consulting Ford, who said not to drive the truck anywhere and individual mechanics who advised to drive it but to stop every hour to fill up so as to dilute the DEF, I decided to risk it and drive as being stuck in Atlanta with no vehicle and six horses with no feed and a three-year-old and on top of it all, no clean clothes, was really sounding worse than a possible truck blow up at that point.
Now I am at home for three days before I turn around and go back to Atlanta on Thursday, as Chatt Hills runs a second event back-to-back in July and Leslie flies back in from his camp to Atlanta on Thursday night. You might think I’m crazy coming home for such a short period of time, and you are probably right, however, I do think the young horses really benefit from the few days of turnout and for Liam, he already misses too many days of camp, swim lessons and general four-year-old shenanigans that I like him to get them when he can. So I have three days of doing a ton of laundry, riding a lot of horses, getting the truck and trailer oil changed, rubber mats fixed, tires checked, running to 5:00 p.m. swim lessons, etc. before I head back to Atlanta with four extra horses this time as our older horses start back again this weekend.
Humphrey and new helmet.
It’s not all laundry and franticness, however. I do get some very good perks. While I was gone, my new horse Humphrey arrived. I spent over four months looking hard for a horse and had four horses fail the vet, which really irritated me as it was much money thrown out of windows. However, perhaps my patience was rewarded, as Humphrey seems like an outstanding fellow. Arriving home at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday was the first time I ever laid eyes on Humphrey. Out of the four horses I compete right now I only ever sat on one of them before they ended up coming to me. Humphrey was in the UK and I sent our dear friend Rodney Powell out to sit on him for me and when Rod called me up after his ride the first thing out of his mouth was, “Well I can tell you, he is no oil painting.” Poor Humphrey. Then I sent the Brit team vet, Liz, over to vet the horse and the first words out of her mouth were “When they pulled him out of the stall I thought ‘I hope that is not what I am vetting for Lesley.’” Poor Humphrey.
I am not one to judge a book by its cover, however, and as far as I am concerned, pretty is as pretty does, but I tell you having now seen Humphrey in the flesh I think he is just lovely looking with a strong character and lovely soft eye. I think Rod and Liz were being a bit harsh really, you would think they were Brad and Angelina themselves!
The second great thing to happen in these three days is that my new Antares custom cross country helmet arrived! Leslie and I are sponsored by Antares and as much as their saddles are amazing I gotta say, their helmets are divine. I made up a xc helmet with the Antares classic blue and chocolate brown and then added my own raspberry, girlie flair with raspberry stitching and logos and it came out real pretty. I must say, an appreciation for nice breeches and helmets are probably the most girlie thing about me and if you too are a connoisseur of fine hat wear I suggest you save up for a custom Antares!
Thursday the girls and I will load up at 6:00 a.m. with a total of 11 horses leaving our place and I will drink coffee and eat peanut m&m’s and pray for seven hours for no blow outs and hope to god that Liam doesn’t have to pee every two hours. Once unloaded, I will go to the airport and pick up my better half so that we can start the cycle all over again. The following week Leslie, Liam and I will all fly to Indiana to teach the second week of their camp to help pay for the fancy new mound septic tank we had to buy.
I have looked in the diary and I think that there are three days we have free in late September when we can possibly have a ‘vacation.’ I remain hopeful, but I suspect that as those days get closer we will feel the economic noose of building a new house and not want to spend any money getting away, but perhaps I will force us to anyways! I read a Facebook post the other day that said, “A vacation is cheaper than a divorce lawyer or a psychiatrist,” so I may follow that wise Facebook advice!
Enjoy your July everyone, and if you are at the events come and say hi! Keep your eye out for Humphrey and see for yourself his movie star good looks, lol. I have yet to decide a show name for him. I wrote on Facebook after I bought him “Hurry up Humphrey!” when he was waiting to be shipped and many of my friends thought that would be a great name for him. I too thought it cute, but I had to decline, as with my luck, if I called a horse that he would end up being a total runaway cross country and I would have to give him to Leslie so the search is still on for the right name!
