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March 8, 2007

Hello from sunny Florida! I’m about two-thirds of the way through my stay down south, and all is well. The weather here is 80 degrees and beautiful, the horses are going well, and the clients have been happy and successful at their events.

This year is also the first that I have brought a working student with me, and it has been super. Last year I had 6 horses all alone and was in a frenzy to get all the work and rising done. This year my friend and student Jessica came with me and brought her horse Mikey. They are both new to eventing but have loved their intro to the sport and have placed in their first two events. I’m enjoying her company too, which is a good thing because we spent the 1^st month of the trip sleeping in the lorry together when our camper broke down – along with every other vehicle we drove – en route.

The drive from Connecticut to Florida is long in the best of circumstances. It is about 1200 miles and usually takes me 24 hours with horses. This year, however, was worse than anticipated. I did a great job (if I say so myself) servicing all the trucks and trailers before departure. The lorry got a huge workover, my pickup went in for all its routine maintenance, and the trailer was serviced. I even talked my friend Linda, my invaluable farrier, Tim, and his trusty assistant Scott into helping with the driving. The plan was that Tim, Linda and I would drive the lorry and the four-horse trailer, and that Scott would pull down a little borrowed camper for Jessica behind his own truck. For passengers we had 8 horses, two jack russels, Jessica, and Scott’s friend Eric.

Departure day: Friday, January 19 started badly – SNOW. Then the lorry wouldn’t start. When we finally made it to the highway it became clear that the camper wasn’t going to make the trip without sway bars. Stop and Unexpected Expense #1. Then we discovered a leak in the lorry’s air suspension. Stop and Unexpected Expense #2. Then the pick up received some bad gas and we had to find a 24 hour repair place and drain the fuel and change the filter. Stop and Unexpected Expense #3. We then rallied at a truck stop to refuel and get more caffeine and munchies. Depressingly we were only in Virginia, 15 hours into the trip! While at the truck stop we somehow got separated – Jess ended up staying there with Scott and Eric and the camper while the horse vehicles went on. We planned to meet at the next filling station, assuming they would catch up while we watered the horses. They decided they wanted to sit down and eat in a restaurant though, and we got farther and farther ahead of them. When they got back on the road the unthinkable happened – they blew a bearing in the camper trailer and melted the wheel to the axel! By the time they reached us on the phone we were almost two hours ahead of them. Too far to make the horses wait again. We decided they would stay the night in a hotel, get it fixed in the morning, and meet us in Florida. Stop and Unexpected Expense #4. Needless to say, it went downhill from there. The camper was not quickly fixable. Virginia (Extended stop, major Unexpected Expense #5 that included three nights in a hotel and seemingly all of the beer in town). The kids waited in until Tuesday morning for parts that never came, abandoned the camper, and drove down with the three of them crammed into Scott’s regular cab pick up truck! In the meantime, we made it to Florida with 8 healthy horses but managed to leave the running board of the trailer in a gas station parking lot in South Carolina (Unexpected Expense #6, but I was not stopping to cry about it).

I have rented stalls from my coach, Buck Davidson. We have 600 acres of good footing for our conditioning, and it is great to get lessons and to ride with all these good riders. The horses are all thriving. My own two are well –Ping Pong is in work and is quite a handful, but he is sound and happy. Bill, my new horse off the track, is turning into a real super star. He did one Novice event then moved right up to Training. He had one stop on the way into the water in his first, but I thought he was within his rights for his greeness. The complex was big and complicated with a roll-top followed by the water entrance to a bank to a coop. He was a bit distracted on the way in and stopped to get a better look. I felt a little guilty whacking him for it, but he popped right in the second time. The following week the water was even harder – a dog house then two strides to a log and drop in followed by a turn to a pair of chevrons – and he blazed right through. Good boy. His dressage is coming along too – he was getting 7s and one 8 for his trot work the last time out, then two wrong leads (!) knocked him back down the list. Oh well – he’s still amazing for 6 months off the track. This is a seriously good horse!

The client horses are doing well too, and the owners have been down to visit regularly. The Silvers make eventing a family affair – both kids and the Mom ride, and the Dad is a pretty fair groom. Nancy (Mom) did her first events on her new young mare and moved up to Novice, David finish his first Preliminary in 5^th place, and Amanda won ALL THREE Novice events she entered. The kids’ horses have since gone home, and Nancy’s mare is down to do a few more events with me.

I also have a nice young Dutch bred horse that belongs to a teenager from my town. He’s a super jumper and has been with me since he was green-broke, so it is fun to see him succeeding at the events. He finished third in his first two Novices, and now his owner, Jordan is down here for her spring break and will ride him in his next one. We celebrated her 16^th birthday by eating carrot cake for breakfast, going to the breakfast place for lunch, and then going to the fondue restaurant for dinner. Phew.

My student Rose now has two horses down here with me – one is a black and white Dutch mare that we found last year. Pearl is crazy-brave cross country and does a lovely dressage test, but I am struggling to tone down the show jumping enough for Rose to really enjoy her. With that in mind, we found a very handsome new horse for Rose that will compliment her program with Pearl. I am enjoying riding the two of them and contemplating the best curriculums for Rose on her next visit.

We have two events to go before I have to get this whole caravan of vehicles home again. The camper finally made it down – the next trick is to get it home again.