Eventing Nation has been really focused on the WEGs for the last two weeks but it’s important to remember that most of the eventing world has been carrying on with business as usual. This afternoon we bring you part four of Jenny’s adventure as a working student and EN guest blogger. Jenny has ambitiously decided to spend the next year as a working student in Lexington, Kentucky. Thanks for writing this Jenny and thank you for reading.
Hello Eventing Nation!
Bear with me as I try to fight gravity and keep my eyelids from falling! I asked John if I could go an extra week until my next post because of WEG and it being pretty crazy here, and now I am finally finding the time to sit down and write about the past few weeks. While it might be hard to remember life before the WEG because every day has felt like a year (in a good way J), I do want to report that Molson and I successfully completed our first HT! We shipped up to Illinois a few weeks ago for Dunnabeck with a few horses, and I came home very proud of my horse with a score of 35.9, plus we managed to qualify for the area championships! Last weekend we were in Wisconsin at Otter Creek HT, and boy was it COLD! I thought it was still too early in the year for 32° mornings, but I was sadly mistaken! I think we brought the cold weather back with us, because we are already putting the medium-weight blankets on– skip the light-weights!
This past week began what I like to call the final fitness boot camp program for Megan’s upper level horses to get ready for Fair Hill. I am lucky to get to do trot and gallop sets on her two boys, so it has also been a pretty good workout for me as well! Last week, every time my legs started to feel like jello, I would just look up into the sky and see the Adequan banner flying over the KHP, which reminded me that in just a few days I would be there watching the games. It’s funny how excited the whole town is for WEG– Andrea and I went into Wal-Mart the other day for some groceries and the second we walked in, a little girl stood stone cold with her jaw dropped to the ground in complete awe of us, as if we were some famous riders here for WEG. Employees were coming up to us and asking if we needed any help finding anything, and when one woman came up and started talking to us about the opening ceremony, I almost thought it would be funny to introduce myself as Karen. I figured karma would find me somehow so I refrained, but it was still funny how people are going a little crazy every time they see someone in riding pants and assume they are some famous rider… I wish!
While it seemed to take forever for WEG to finally begin, it also seemed to fly by in an instant! Megan wins the super boss award for buying tickets for Andrea and I to go see one of the days of the Eventing Dressage, so I will forever be in debt to her! That was an amazing experience, and the lunch break was the perfect length of time to go do some shopping…. except where were all of the tack stores!? I don’t know if I’m just used to the Equine Affaire, which is complete equestrian Mecca, or if I somehow missed all of the good shops, because I personally thought the vendors were rather lame. Unless I wanted to buy $1000 custom boots, new flooring, or a Big Ass Fan, I was pretty much out of luck when it came to shopping at WEG. I guess since I don’t actually need anything/have any money to spend, this actually worked out for the best, but I was still sad that I didn’t get buy myself… I mean Molson… new things! On Saturday we spent all day watching the XC, and I attempted to take some pictures with my camera, however the only good pictures I got turned out to be refusal shots, so there goes my photography career. The only real disappointment I suffered was not meeting Hamish and Dave, although I didn’t visit the Bourbon tent so that’s probably why.
It’s weird that WEG (or at least the best part of it) is over, but it does mean that days will go back to being normal… No more waking up before the sun to feed/turnout, and staying out doing trot/gallop sets until after sunset! Now all concentration is on the two big boys to get as ready as possible for Fair Hill. There also might be some preparation for Hagyard Midsouth Team Challenge going on, involving costumes for the xc phase… maybe…
Until next time J
xo, Jenny
