Julie Wolfert is a top notch rider from Kansas who agreed to write for us a little bit about her first experience at Rebecca Farms. Julie and her OTTB Buenos Aires will be contesting the CCI2* for the first time, and hoping to make a splash! They haven’t been worse than 3rd place in all of 2012 or 2013 at the Intermediate level, and were recently 2nd at the CIC2* at Weatherford & Greenwood Farm HT. Good luck to Julie, and thanks for reading!
Julie & Aires at Texas Rose
Hi guys! My name is Julie Wolfert and I am so excited to be a guest blogger for Eventing Nation. This is my first time at Rebecca Farms and let me tell you it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! I made the long 30 hour drive from Kansas (yes where Dorothy and Toto are from) with my mom, my two dogs, Georgie and Frankie, and of course, Aires my 12 year old off the track Thoroughbred. The drive was long but it is totally worth it. For me driving through South Dakota, with all of the roadside attractions, and then entering Wyoming only to see the landscape change every ten minutes, was something that made the drive a little more entertaining.
Aires and I arrived a bit tired on Monday and he was glad to see a stall full of fluffy shavings and immediately laid down and gave me the hairy eyeball… “don’t even think about bothering me for a few hours!” I have to admit that next time I will haul another horse with him as I think he got lonely from being in the trailer alone for all those hours. It did take a toll on him but after I came back a few hours later he was back to his usual self of pinning ears and showing me his teeth.
This will be Aires’ first time doing a CCI** and only my second, so I am very excited to tackle the event this week. As much I as I love this event already, it did come with a toll on the old check book with traveling expenses being the biggest damper. To help with the costs my students, family and friends hosted a fundraiser jumper derby at my facility at the end of June which we called Road To Montana. We also had a bake sale and silent auction where all proceeds went to Aires and I to help get us to Montana. It was a complete success and everyone had so much fun so I have to give a HUGE shout out to everyone who helped get me here. I couldn’t have done it without you guys!
We can’t walk the cross country course yet but from a distance it looks fantastic and it isn’t every day you see an irrigation system on the course. Just like everyone, my goal is just to go out this week and give it our all. To lay down a dressage test that I know we are capable of and to complete the event on a high note of a clear jumping round. This is all for now and good luck to all the 700 competitors at Rebecca Farms this weekend!
Scenic views from right outside Kalispell
