Another Year Another Horse Expo (and More Blogger Meetups)

This weekend started out with a bang- Kate and I headed up to Peony's to stay overnight since she was conveniently located near our weekend activities, is a super fun person to hang out with, and has the most comfortable guest bed I've ever slept in. Seriously I've harassed bf about getting one of these things for us.

Kate and I stopped for sandwiches for dinner, but after some good pony talk with Peony and Andy after arriving, we all headed out for froyo. Then talked about ponies and watched pony videos until way too late before going to bed.

I want to jump this dragon

At our blogger trail ride the weekend before, Nicole had mentioned that Alyssa was coming down to show about an hour and a half north of Peony. I proposed that we get up early and go visit Alyssa and Nicole before going to Expo, which added 3 hours to our day, and Kate was like YES. And this is why we are friends! So we left at 6:45, grabbed breakfast from the delicious breakfast bar near Peony's house, and were on the show grounds at 8:25.

We didn't want to interfere, since I'm kind of a mess at shows and meeting new people is not what I want to have happen to me right before a test, so we watched Alyssa and Bacon from a distance. They put in a BRILLIANT ride. I'm always amazed reading Alyssa's blog because of her battle with Lyme, and just to see them put in a fabulous ride after an 11 hour journey was really inspiring. We talked a bit about how damn easy it is to be a serious dressage rider in my area- we have tons of shows and trainers and you can earn all your medals and qualify for championships each year never driving more than 30 minutes from my home facility.

The clouds were so cool that day

Just like every other blogger I've met, Alyssa is super nice and was fun to chat with. Bacon can also totally give Charlie a run for his money in terms of coat softness. She's such a sweet mare, I love meeting new blogger ponies.

Kate and I decided to walk some of the cross country course before Nicole rode. Alyssa had told us a bit about the course and so we were excited to see it. The course is ADORABLE yet had some challenging moments, including one down bank illusion that Kate and I both had bug eyes about, but I'll let Nicole and Alyssa go into depth about the course.

Next, it was Nicole and Murray's test. We chatted with Nicole's trainer and stood with Alyssa and her husband to watch warm up and then walk over for the test before having to leave rather quickly. We did still manage a group picture, yay blogger meetups!

Had to go get my boots from my car, I thought the central valley
was supposed to be hot! But it rained on us...

An hour and a half later we were picking Peony up from her house (she opted to go ride her horse that morning instead of sitting in the car for 3 hours) and heading off to Horse Expo! Kate had never been, I've been a lot of years in a row, including last year with Peony and L.

My main goal of Expo was to find a show coat. There aren't a ton of english booths, but there are some, and I was lucky enough to find the PERFECT coat at Goode Rider. Normally a $300 coat, I paid $150 (plus $8 in ATM fees because they were cash only) and was incredibly pleased. It fits super well and is really comfortable. It's just plain black, vs the really cool slate gray with white piping one I had been looking at (it was the same price but the fit was really off IMO). I wanted something with a little bling, but at least now I can go completely wild with my stock tie and not look like a crazy person I guess. And I mean you can't beat the price.

Also on my list were hock boots for TC. He keeps ripping up the point of his hock when he lays down, and no amount of washing and AluShield is helping. I came up to them and said "I need your largest pair" and they asked if I had a draft horse and I said no, and he's not even that big (16.2 on his tip toes), but the horse has some fucking JOINTS. They sold me the XL pair and I had a moment of hesitation when they showed me the horse they designed the size for- a 19h draft horse. Got them home and put them on the next morning and... yeah they fit just fine. Horse has some fucking joints.

L and Carlos were with us in spirit!

I also managed to get talked into some supplements. They had a buy 2 get 1 free deal, so I grabbed the MSM I needed, plus grabbed a small thing of glucosamine. I think TC could use some extra joint support now that we're doing more collection and glucosamine is the next thing I want him on. I contemplating just getting more MSM or glucosamine, but the lady talked me into getting MuscleUp. TC very much struggles with soreness after harder rides, and when he is sore, I feel like it really sets us back. He comes up against me more often, is more likely to exhibit bad behavior, and is generally just kind of blah on those days which makes me feel blah about him. He's best when he's had a day off and then a light ride beforehand. They said the MuscleUp would help with residual soreness, so I'm curious to see if it works at all.

Beyond those things, everything else I got was just kind of a bonus. Peony and I found what is basically a dry shampoo/coat conditioner that I grabbed for show days. It's super hard to keep the horse clean for shows- he always rolls. So having that in the morning of the show would be nice. We also got free wound care spray, which is excellent since I've been looking for something to put on his hock sores. There were also a lot of places giving free grain samples, which I like to grab just to sprinkle on his grain for fun.

Speedy you're so cute!

Karen had posted on her blog that she'd be a demo rider for the dressage clinician at Expo. Normally I don't watch any of the clinicians, except maybe the breed demos, just because I have S judges a plenty at home to watch. But we watched this one mostly to see Karen and Speedy and give him a pet on the nose afterward! I can't say the actual dressage part was in line with my own training, so I didn't get much out of it in that sense, but Speedy is the cutest horse (I have a soft spot for grey arabs) and it was so fun to see him and Karen in person. He's got this little spot on his nose that I pressed a few times. He's also a supremely soft horse, I need to start currying my horse more!

Everyone was all about Speedy, so we didn't really get to talk to Karen much (or reveal we were bloggers, woops, seriously a whirlwind weekend), but it was still fun to meet them!

At the end of the day, Kate and I jumped back in the car and drove another two hours back to the bay area (totaling over 500 miles and 8 hours of driving in 24 hours). Bf has been working a couple of overnight shifts so I hadn't seen him in a while, and I totally passed out pretty immediately after saying hi and refusing food. Sorry bf, spent more time with him the rest of the weekend so it worked out.

Overall it was a SUPER fun weekend and we're only halfway through!