In this edition of Meg’s Update, we learn that she is not invincible, and WEF really is quite a spectacle. Thanks for writing, Meg, and thanks for reading. Hope you heal quickly, Meg!
From Meg:
I would love to update you on what is happening at Rocking Horse, as I am supposed to be there competing myself. Alas, the black injury cloud which followed me pretty much from 1994-2005 has found me once again. I fell off yesterday (or as I like to say, “went dancing with a jump standard”) and had to scratch from the show.
So for the next day or ten, I will sit here doing budgets and entering the next year’s events as I watch Baby Sarah grow into Big Girl Sarah as she does my job, her job, and the ex-working student that we wish we had’s job (apply within). Now opening funds for the amount of dinners I owe Baby Sarah the super star, and thank you to our awesome Florida client visitors Laura and Genie for helping!
Sinead, Tate, Foxy, VDL Tommy and I just returned from a few days in Wellington. After trying our hardest to arrive in the daylight Saturday, we failed due to the need for diesel during an inconvenient stretch of Florida’s Turnpike and arrived in the dark. Many expletives later, we got our inconveniently long trailer over what we now refer to as “The Death Bridge” and tucked ourselves and our horses into a secret and undiscovered hiding spot that I cannot reveal. All I can say is, my next job may just be Supreme Travel Agent.
Sunday was spent at White Fences for a dressage show. One word: Wow. We arrive, Tasmanian devil style, after following our GPS to a dead end, and then navigating our way around a large safari over about 1865392 speed bumps, just in time for a nice quick 15 minute warm up for our first ride time. We arrive and the first word out of the secretary’s mouth was, “Oh, You’re the eventers.” I maybe would have cared, but I was in shock at the warm up area – about 345 bagillion dollar horses randomly placed throughout the ring piaffing and staring at themselves in the upright outdoor mirror. It could have been the most bizarre thing I had ever seen.
That being said, it was a fun day. The ring stewards were hilarious and each ring was immaculately dragged and decorated. We won all of our classes (1st out of 1). and no one slashed our tires in the parking lot for parking perpendicular to everyone else. I think they liked us. By the way, if you ever go to a real dressage show – make sure you have a USDF number.
Monday and Tuesday were spent lessoning with Lauren Hough. She is pretty darn cool, and really helped Sinead’s show jumping without changing her whole instinct. We are excited to continue working with her for the season. We showed on Wednesday at WEF. That place is also a Wow. I would like to be on the income side of that conglomerate. The ring steward/ingate/announcer man there was also really awesome, and decided he was going to call Sinead – Shenaynay, to which I agreed was appropriate. I have to give a shout-out to the girls in Lauren’s barn who were all very welcoming and helpful to us outsiders – and let us shack up our horses in between classes. I swear they picked stalls and swept hourly.
So several lessons, a dressage show, a jumper show, a Middleburg reunion, and 8 trips over the death bridge later – we are home in Ocala. Sinead has forbidden me to ride until the fall, and Sarah shoots me with her air gun every time she passes the open doorway to where I am ‘cripped up.
Good luck to everyone at Rocking Horse this weekend and give Big Girl Sarah a high 5 when you see her.
PS I just realized i am wearing the same shirt I was wearing in my USOC photoshoot….but I promise I washed it.
