I Made it!

Yes, I did make it to the Royal!

I was permitted a half day on Friday and zipped over there as soon as I could.  Adriana and DJ told me after I posted my initial blog that Sable had gone lame and wouldn't be at the royal.  I messaged Linda, and got a mysterious response that they ARE at the royal.

Once I got there, I found that Sable was lame, and she had gone anyway and took advantage of  a Reiki session.  I wish I could have watched it, but I was immediately snapped up by Solstice, who had arrived 20 minutes before me, and was walking Angel around when I got there (they were Sable's replacement).  Together, Solstice and I got Angel all prettied up and braided nicely.  By the time we were done, the Reiki was over and Sable was getting ready to go home.  I will have to remember to touch base with Linda and see how she is doing.  I did see Sable in the field yesterday and she was trotting around looking lame, but not terrible.

Solstice went on for her first ride at 2:30.  I had the pleasure of setting up the poles and jump for her, and although she was nervous, she did a wonderful job!  Same went for the next 2 performances of the night.  People really loved watching her, particularly because of her size and cuteness (both of them!)  She got lots of questions despite a pretty small audience, the Friday is never as busy as the weekend.  That's ok, its a good warmup!





In between, I was able to get some shopping done and sat down at the Spirit of the Horse to watch the Waylon Roberts clinic.  One thing he really stressed was riding with leg all the way to the jump.  Prepare your rhythm beforehand and if you keep your rhythm, you will be successful, don't back off before the jump in attempts to change things.  I think that really helps the horses confidence.  Also he stressed putting your weight to the outside around corners to balance the horse, something that came to help me on Sunday.

After that, Linda had returned just before Solstice's last performance and had brought her friend Lynne.  We went to the petting zoo.  I found a cow that I loved and wanted to bring home.  She was so sweet and soft!

Solstice somehow convinced me to try milking the fake cow.  Guess I will need this skill when I bring home the automatic lawn mower / cheese maker pictured above.

Of course, no trip is complete without going to the horse barn and seeing what was hanging out!  We caught a couple of draft teams getting ready for a performance, I am guessing it was just a demonstration, not a competition as there was just one of each: Belgian, Percheron, and Clyde (my favourite because of their funky coats!)

 

Then we watched the warmups for indoor eventing.  Linda found it funny that Waylon Roberts kissed his horse on the nose before going out.  Apparently most men don't do that.  I think most of them just do it in the stall when nobody is looking, too ashamed of their horsey love perhaps?  Below is who I THINK is Jessica Phoenix, our only eventer to complete the Olympics (and do very well too!), who came over to take a good look at Solstice (who had snuck my phone away to take photos), unfortunately the pics didn't come in too clear.  From my memory and comparing photos taken of the competition, i am 95% sure.  Very cool to see!