Horse Expo

Friday night after round one of Horse Expo and a lot of driving already, I headed out to Peony and Andy's house to meet them and L for another Epic Pony Sleepover. L had missed the first one, which was SO FUN, so we had to do another one.

Highlights included hanging out with Rio (and
L, Peony, and Andy I guess)

And getting a ton of free stuff! Also some not free stuff

After sitting and talking about ponies, we headed out to visit Spot, see Andy's new lease horse and watch him ride, and then head off to dinner. We also creeped on Murray (Nicole missed out by ONE DAY being in Australia so obviously we have to do this again) and I squealed and tried to pick up all the animals we saw at the barn. Like a snaggletooth cat, a super cute dog, bunnies that ran away from me, and even Murray (who was not all too enthused to see us) before he went out for turnout.

For dinner that night we got thai food and froyo and talked ponies. Whenever we get together we basically just use the entire time to talk about ponies. Every time I think we might run out of pony related things to talk about, we find another pony crevice and jump right in. Best night ever! Though very late and it wasn't until 1:15 that L and I finally stopped talking in the guest room.

Making Spot hang out with me

Making Spot's pasture friend love me as well

My new kitty, I carried him around for quite a while

The next morning after some coffee and pancakes (I give chateau Peony and Andy a 5 star rating for cute dogs, comfortable beds, delicious food, and amazing pony conversations), we headed out to Horse Expo. I hadn't spent too much time there on Friday, and mostly having been dragged along by my parents to all the saddle places, so I was excited to be there with friends who wanted to be a bit more methodical about seeing EVERYTHING.

We wandered through the horse trailers first, and there were some awesome ones. For people not at all interested in living quarter trailers, we had a lot of opinions on them. There were some super fancy ones and even a bumper pull LQ trailer that was super cute, the table turned into a single bed. If I ever wanted to run away from responsibility with my horses and cat, that's what I'd need. Not sure if the animals would be so thrilled though.

The layouts of the other (non LQ) trailers were mostly the same, but there were a few trailers with REALLY cool tack rooms. Including one where it basically opened up like a gallery for your like six saddles and then on the other side, had a great dressing room. Tons of storage and we kept making plans at how you could basically live in this one too.

Peony's new trailer (well...)

For shame, Murray is missing an R on his nameplate

This baby was so cute

The shopping at Expo is basically the best part. I'm not a huge fan of watching the clinicians and I'm glad Peony and L were in agreement. First, it's really hot up there, so sitting outside in the sun was not going to be fun. Second, they didn't have anyone I was absolutely dying to see (my dad did watch Parelli and got bitten by the bug slightly lol).

We wandered around and I did an okay job resisting a lot of the booths. I wanted to buy these great ice boots for TC, but decided against it because I wasn't going to have access to a freezer at the barn (or maybe before the barn, depends on where I get a job) and I knew that I'd probably forget them even if I did. I also resisted the awesome heat packs for people even though I toyed with the idea a lot. I mean my back hurts sometimes, but I rarely do very much about it anyway and it's fine.

As we wandered around, we loaded up on candy, pens, and various other things being given away by the booths. I actually didn't realize how much candy I had grabbed and am still working on it today even. The LMF booth was one of my favorites, giving out coupons, hats, key chains, pens, and they even had bins of their feed so I could see what my horse was eating. He's been on Gentle Balance for six months and I have no idea what it even is- LMF sponsors the rehab facility.

Signing up for every raffle forever

Mini pony!

We got some moderately disappointing tacos for lunch and then headed back to actually buy everything. We had done a big sweep of all four enormous rooms and took note of everything we wanted. Our bags would have been MUCH heavier and more awkward to carry around all day (and our bank accounts much lighter I think) if we had bought everything when we first saw it.

I did give in to a sparkly dressage whip that I think is 120cm so illegal for shows, oh well, it will be a fun schooling whip. And I gave in to a tail brush that the guy told me wouldn't break when I used it on TC's tail. I go through a ridiculous number of brushes with him, he just breaks them. So I splurged and bought the $20 brush, hoping it'd last longer than five of the $4 ones I was buying. I used it on Rico the next day and it worked okay, I'm concerned about the bristles getting bent, but none of them fell out, so that's good.

I also let a guy talk me into buying what was basically Sore-No-More. He put some on my wrist and told us some stories and I was sold. I fully acknowledged that I had been swindled a bit, but I want something to put on TC's leg after work to make me feel better, regardless of whether it *actually* does anything for him. But hey, my wrist did feel better.

L found pictures of her and Carlos!

Taking a nap on Spot

After collecting our stuff, we were wandering back to the car. We weren't done shopping though! L mentioned that Brookside was going on right down the road and had excellent booths too. We headed out to the show and I got to experience the Beach Party that I've only heard about. I wish dressage people were more fun!

The whole place was decorated with various beach themed stuff. The stables were covered in flamingos, pool toys, floaties, and a lot of it was quite elaborate! Even the riders were wearing beach gear like grass skirts and hawaiian shirts. It was amazing. But we were there to shop.

I spent most of the time debating at whether to get a C4 belt (I can't wear belts to ride and I already have enough regular belts) and a cute show shirt (I need a sound horse first) and then deciding not to. There were some cute bonnets (TC doesn't need a bonnet) and boots (not protective enough) and a lot of saddle pads that I had to remind myself were not dressage pads. Right. I escaped the show without buying anything, but really enjoyed seeing a lot of the stuff that I'd seen online and been interested in.

Moderately disappointing tacos

Much better tacos for dinner (L's plate, I sort of ate mine way
too fast to take a picture)

Before heading all the way home, we stopped to get some REALLY good tacos near Peony and Andy's house. New favorite taco place for sure (until L drags me to the one that she likes in SD). I really didn't want to leave such amazing saddle club adventures, but I'll be back in the area this weekend because my clients aren't letting up with the far away horse shows.

After dinner!