Monday, October 12 2009
Sunday came and went! It is now Monday night. I am super tired. Any how, Sunday we woke up and packed all of our trailers to drive over to the horse park and have our passport inspections on the horses. At noon we all drove over together and got the horses settled in. The stalls are extremely small!! They are also very flimsy. The walls are made of vinyl and that is it.
I finally got to meet Carson. He is really cool. He is 16.1 and looks like a race horse. I rode him with Valerie's group of riders after we had everything else settled. He is really comfortable and when he canters he passes everyone in the first few strides just doing a relaxed gait. He can come home with me any day:) Jeremy rode Smitty and Maddy rode Fuego. All the horses still look great. Monday, Jeremy and Tim took care of the horses in the morning. When they returned I asked how the horses were and they said fine... except for yours. I thought they were full of you know what. But they weren't. It turns out 16.1 hand horses and tiny stalls are a bad mix when it comes to laying down. Carson had remodeled his stall. Luckily he didn't hurt himself, just the stall. He ripped open the front door to the stall (remember it is only vinyl). He also bowed out the whole front section, gate and all. He is fine. The front panel has also been replaced already! There was a vet doing a heart study on horses. She had contacted several competitors to do research on their horses. Smitty, Fuego and Carson are all part of this study. They put a monitor on each horse for :30 min and then their little machine records data and we will get some sort of results from this. Should be interesting. I rode Carson again. Just as cool the second time. Jeremy and Tim rode Smitty and Fuego. (Chikako, Fuego's rider, gets in from Japan on Tuesday.) We went to the Kentucky Horse Park today and we were just in time to see the "Parade of Breeds". This consisted of 5 horses. An obese Belgium, another fat Morgan, a round Appy, an equally round Paint and a little, fit Arab. Then we looked around the museum which was really cool. There are all sorts of interesting things to read about. At 3:00 we had a team meeting and walked the vet check area. Then at 5:30 there was a meet and greet for all the competitors. That was fun. All of the Chefs got up and introduced their riders and had a few things to say, a few teams were razzing each other which was good spirited play. Right after this Lynn and Mark arrived. It was great to see them after a year of moving back West. They brought Merlin's mom, Mia and brother, Raton or Mousy. Tomorrow it will be all business. Unlike today, where Jeremy and I rode the Saddlebreds pictured above:) H | |||||||
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