Adventures of an Eventing Gypsy

Jeez it’s been a while since my last update. I apologize for not keeping up on this but when you can’t seem to stay in the same time zone for more than a week it gets a bit tricky. The months of July and August have absolutely flown by as I have traveled from state to state, horse show to horse show, sofa to sofa. My road trip diet was basically made up equally of candy, coffee and alcohol. I like to call this the “trifecta”. I have the caffeine shakes, significant debt from purchasing diesel fuel, and a left arm tan that would make a truck diver jealous.

But how lucky was I?! Donald and I received a travel grant from the Broussard family and the Endowment Trust to attend the Rebecca Farm CIC3* in Montana. If we competed there, we were eligible for a much larger grant to go overseas. I found out about my grant just about the last minute, so I scraped and scurried to find a way out there. Luckily for me my new neighbor in Florida, Joy Meyer, was planning to head out there too. I called them on a Wednesday and we left the next day. I had never met Joe or his girlfriend before, no better way to get to know someone than spend 4 days in a truck with them I suppose.
5 blown tires later we arrived in Salt Lake City where Joe and Ruthie had some sales horses to drop off. I’m sure the 3 of us were quite the sight, unkempt, unwashed, covered in grease and dirt from changing tire after tire. At least now I had an excuse for looking so disheveled, rather than I simply cannot be bothered with a hairbrush or makeup.

At last we were on our last leg of the journey to Montana. Joe had two rides, Snip in the CIC3* and Heidi the mare in the Preliminary. My Donald of course was in the CIC3* also. I got a lot of crap from my friends about driving, how horrible it must have been to go all that way. I am really glad we did the drive. I saw a lot of parts of the country that I otherwise would never have gotten to see. This country is so big and beautiful, it has so much to offer. Except gas stations. We sort of ran out of those when we hit the Montana state line. Luckily I am extremely experienced in running trucks down to the last drop. When I hit 0 Miles to E in their truck Ruthie got all sweaty and I think Joe’s eye started to twitch. No big deal, coasted in on neutral to Ovando, Montana, a town I will never forget!! We bought ALL of their diesel! And a pie.
We arrive at Rebecca Farm!!! Everything is stunning and built to perfection. It is the perfect venue. It has all the bells and whistles. Donald got a humungous permanent end stall which, being 17.2, I think he greatly appreciated. Joe and Ruthie went lake trout fishing and we had fresh Montana fish.

Of course Donald trotted up at the first inspection like a pro. I then had my grant interview with some of the members from the committee. It was a bit of an emotional time being at Rebecca Farm, since the grant was given to us developing riders by Miss Becky who died of cancer last year. It is an extremely selfless and generous thing that she did for us riders, but that is just the type of person she was. I had written the Broussard family a letter after attending Miss Becky’s memorial at Rolex this year. It was on the Thursday after my horrendous and embarrassing dressage, I didn’t really feel like leaving my hotel room and I looked like I had gotten hit by a bus. I went anyway, and it was just amazing to be around these wonderful people, like how Miss Becky was, people who just wanted to support you no matter what. We started to talk about the letter in my interview and before I knew it they were crying, I was crying, nothing really got accomplished but some crying. Not really the way I wanted it to go but if nothing else it was sincere.

SO Surprise Surprise, Donald is up to his old tricks in Dressage again. I wish I had been able to get him out to a dressage show before loading up for Montana but there just was no time. It is strange, more than he is being a jerk I really do think he gets scared when the spotlight is on him. He normally a very confident horse with a bit of an ego but he just feels all clammy and nervous sometimes in the ring. I got on the computer that night and entered 3 dressage shows.

Also not a shocker, Donald ran clean and fast XC. Just 4 seconds over the optimum time which I am a bit bummed about. I need to learn how to shave the seconds off a bit more since he just is not a fast horse. I had one down in the show jumping, the middle part of the triple which was a tall and airy vertical. Overall we finished in 13^th place which is my unlucky number since this will be the 3^rd 3* that I have finished in 13^th place. Must do better.

On the road again, this time back to Salt Lake City for Joe to teach a 3 day clinic. I picked up a few rides there and got to have some lessons with Joe which I really enjoyed. I think Donald appreciates the way Joe works with him as he is not really the type of horse you can just kick and kick or push around. The barn in Salt Lake is amazing and the people are just the best. I can’t wait to go back. I wish I skied or snowboarded since the barn is right near several resorts like Snowbird. But being afraid of heights and snow kind of puts the kabash on that plan.

After the clinic we headed east back through Wyoming and Kansas and eventually we hooked up with my trailer in Michigan. We paid someone to drive my rig up with Joe and my 2* horses to meet us. Joe and Ruthie headed off to Millbrook and I took my ponies to Michigan to stay with my good friend Jamie and do a bit of family visit.

I learned some amazing things and met some wonderful people on the trip to Montana. The Broussards treated me like family and I am so grateful to have them in my life. Joe has a wealth of knowledge and he was extremely generous to answer all my questions without getting too annoyed. Ruthie is a marketing and PR genius and it was so helpful to get her insight also. I am not sure if Joe and Ruthie realize that they are stuck with me now. More importantly I learned how to make a margarita in the backseat and roughly 20 obscure ways to open a beer bottle. And I kicked their asses at Monopoly. Every time.

The time I spent in Michigan was really good for me to work on my own with my horses. I went to dressage shows, I jumped on my own, I spent time really getting back to solidly communicating with my horses. I took them to a local Intermediate horse trial where they finished 3^rd and 4^th. On to Richland Park, the big event in August. Donald was in the Advanced horse trail and Hewie in the Intermediate. I also had Pips, the 4yo, in her first Training level.

I didn’t really do much breathing on Thursday before Donald’s dressage. I did a bit of a different warm up. Low and behold, it worked. Donald scored a 36 which put him in 7^th place in a very big and impressive Advanced class. I had to scroll top-down to find his result rather than bottom-up!! Good boy Big Red!! Hewie also put in a good test finishing on a 35 in the Intermediate.

Cross Country Day!! Duh, Donald and Hewie are super stars yet again. They are so much fun to run and jump with. They know their jobs perfectly and we just get along great. I was 10 seconds slow on Hewie which I was kicking myself about because he is extremely fast. He can be a bit green and spooky in the woods and road crossings and he gets out of balance easily. I just err on the side of caution when I ride him since he is only 7. Donald bombed around the big and technical track and jumped every fence just as I thought he would. Took a bit of a leap into the 2^nd water and I got snapped out of the tack since is big and I am small. Of course Donald being the true professional he just held his line and jumped the frog out without a question. I was 4 seconds slow on Donald again. I am not being too hard on myself about it right now since both Donald and Hewie are not as fit as they will be in 2 months when we are at our big fall 3 day, Galway in California.

Donald was tied for 3^rd going into show jumping which I was freaking out over a bit. He is finally getting some really good results and is even the 9^th placed Advanced horse in the country. I turned him a bit too quickly in the arena to 4a which was an upright vertical down a hill with a brush box and I don’t think I gave him enough time to study it and I had the rail down. For being a big horse Donald is surprisingly sensitive and I think it rattled him a bit, he got a bit scooty so I also had 5 down which was an angled vertical. Other than my mistake he truly is jumping better than he has ever jumped. Luckily for me the rails fell easy for everyone and we held on to our 3^rd place in the Advanced division. Hewie also had one rail which I was pretty upset about because I literally did not even hear him touch it. He is jumping so well and in such a good rhythm, it is like butter.

The little mare Piper also finished on her dressage score in 3^rd place at her first Training level. WOW what a nice girl she is. She is for sale…. !!

We packed up and drove 18 hours straight back to Florida. SO GOOD TO BE HOME!! I’m currently working on tackling The Jungle aka my yard. Going to hit some more dressage shows and practice my show jumping, obviously. Get the boys a bit fitter. I decided to skip on the AEC’s since I truly am just a bit burnt out physically and financially. I am going to work on things at home and take both of them to Poplar Place where Donald will do the CIC3* and Hewie will do the CIC2*. I think Poplar and Galway are the only two 3*’s in North America that Donald has not done yet. He has jumped around every other one, some two or three times. Was really hoping to get overseas this fall but it was just not in the cards for me. Next year. Galway seems like a pretty cool Plan B and I am really getting excited to head out to the left coast.


Kisses from Donald, Hewie and me of course