Today we bring you part two of Jenny’s adventure as a working student and EN guest blogger. Jenny has ambitiously decided to spend the next year of her life as a working student. Everything in eventing depends on working students, from the development of new talent to the financial viability of top programs. Thanks for writing this Jenny and thank you for reading.
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Link: Part 1
Hello Eventing Nation!
Well, the good news is that Molson and I have made it to Kentucky–he is a mere twenty feet away from me happily munching on hay in his stall, and I am here sitting in my new room, trying to balance giving lots of pats to our resident cat (literally the most affectionate animal I have ever met!), and typing this! The bad news is that while I was only joking in my last post when I said something always goes wrong when you don’t need it to, my words actually became a reality! I am lucky that my amazing parents joined me on this long adventure, so I had ample help along the way. Day one of our trip was driving for twelve hours, from Massachusetts to Connecticut first to pick up Moo, then straight to a layover stop in a town just outside of Pittsburg. For my first time ever driving a trailer for more than a few hours, I have to say it was pretty easy and relaxing. I am such a worrier when it comes to my horse’s safety that I would much rather prefer driving him myself! However, day two brought a stiff neck and a sore ankle from flooring it up all of western Pennsylvania’s hills, so my lovely father stepped in and drove the rest of the way. In the beginning of the journey on the second day, my dressing room door just did not want to stay shut, even though I had properly closed and locked it! Twice I looked back and saw it swaying open, but luckily both times it was when we were breaking, so nothing fell out and no harm was done!
Just when I began to relax, and stopped worrying about all of my tack falling out into the middle of the highway and causing multiple accidents, a large ‘pop’ came from behind– one of the trailer tires blew up. The tire was somewhat polite in that it just so conveniently happened to pop right before a truck weigh station, so we pulled off of the highway and I proceeded to call US Rider. Not only is US Rider great because they found someone to come help us out, but they sent us David. David was a kind man who was out riding his horse when he got the call that someone had a blown trailer tire with a horse on board, now sitting on the side of the highway in the 95° heat. I should also mention that this was on a Sunday. David and his Morgan/Mustang mare galloped two miles home to his truck to come out and bring us a new tire (our spare wouldn’t last all the way to Kentucky). David, if you are reading this, THANK YOU! After a couple of hours, we were back on our way to our final destination–Team CEO with Megan Moore!
In the two days it took us to get down here, about 16 hours were spent driving, 3 were spent stopping for gas and offering water to Molson, and 2 were spent sunbathing (more like burning) somewhere on the highway in Ohio, waiting for David to come rescue us. Needless to say, I have never been so happy to unload a horse in my entire life. Moo was an absolute angel the entire trip, and is now quickly settling in to his new home–although the hot walker is still a terrifying monster that he wants to stop, stare, and snort at all day J
At the moment I am the sole working student here, and I have been told that tomorrow, my first day of work, we have dozens of horses to ride–I think I have died and gone to heaven! With that said, sleep is looking like a high priority right now!
Until next time
xo, Jenny
