What do you get when you cross Women, Wine, and Whinnies? A big leap of faith and a brand new event coming to Area V in 2020. Don’t miss part two of the Horses for Healing blog as the team continues to build their dream into a reality. You can read part one of this series here.
“So at the Rose they have…” “I saw this at Holly Hill…” “I don’t think one Land Rover duck is too much to ask.” “Look what I found on Pinterest!” These are all comments heard at Horses for Healing since receiving the green light for the ambitious-but-not-at-all-insane cross country project.
Ok, so maybe those statements were from one particular person (ahem, not that it matters). Our enthusiasm for the project made it hard to think beyond our vision of the finished project. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Patience and fortitude conquer all things. Don’t put the cart before the horse. These and other words of wisdom we felt free to ignore initially but as we launched into full swing we were quickly reminded to incorporate step four into our plan.
Step 4: Manage Expectations and Slow Your Roll
We took a lot of learnings away from our first meeting with USEA-certified course designer Andy Bowles. Things that perhaps some of us knew and had forgotten or things the more amateurish amateurs just didn’t know – like the best colors to use to make sure jumps are the most visible to horses. With these things in mind we refocused and took a hard look at our order of go.
There’s a lot of clean up that needs to happen. Old jumps have been removed, the road through the woods widened and cleared, and the tall reeds where the lions hide (according to some the more observant equines on the farm) have been cleaned out. Of course, sometimes you first have to mess up in order to clean up, which means we now have a giant pile of brush and discarded jumps to dispose of. Maybe our next WWW (Women, Wine and Whinnies) meeting will be our own barn equivalent of Burning Man – functional and fun!
Because HFH is a nonprofit we rely on non-horsey volunteers to do a lot of the work around the farm. Volunteers bring a good mix of much needed skills and time and have produced some spectacular results. We have a local Eagle Scout group to thank for our beautiful new jump standards hopefully some of you will see in stadium! Designs for the jumps we decided to keep had to be simple enough that our volunteers could understand the direction and produce the end-product we were looking for. Simple sanding and painting and following a diagram. No complex rebuilds or adding too much flair or drama – we’ll count on our competitors for that.
Some of us are more, shall we say, nimble than others! Photo courtesy of Megan Smits.
Believe it or not, there are some major (and I mean major) corporations based in the Bentonville area who regularly provide volunteer groups. Thanks to these wonderful volunteers, most of our ‘keeper’ jumps have successfully completed rehab. A handful still need some handiwork which will be completed as the weather gets warmer, and rumor has it – more than 20 brand new jumps built by Andy’s team will be delivered starting the week of January 13!
The WWW crew had recently scheduled a hack around the property to check out the progress; however, on a 40-degree day with 25+ mph winds we opted for the safety of the indoor and time to bat around a few ideas to get our project out in the community. Okay fine, so, some of us opted for the indoor. The nimble 20-somethings, those show-offs rode out back. The more wise, mature, breakable of us opted for the indoor.
The not-so-nimble group. Photo courtesy of Megan Smits.
Show software has been picked out and we are taking note of every little detail we can possibly imagine to make sure our events run smoothly. Anything from making sure volunteers are properly outfitted to the logistics of parking and everything in between. We want to make sure we create the best possible experience and are open to ideas. What makes for a great show experience and what are the details you love to see? Fancy ribbons and fun prizes? No stall clean-up after the show? Rider tailgating on Saturday night? Let us know your suggestions soon because the date for our first event has been decided – March 14 and 15!
Our eyes are up and legs are on tight, our distance is only a few short months away. And we can’t wait! Go eventing!
