WOW. (Update Part 1)

That's really all I can say. I have been so busy over the last three months, it's not even funny. That's why I haven't posted. In January, my trainer texted my Mom asking her if I could come be a working student for her while she was in Wellington for six weeks. & that is where all the busy-ness started.

Wellington

First Hack In Welly World

I packed my bags within two days & headed to Wellington, where I'd be staying for 6 weeks. The whole ride down there I was wondering what it was like, what the people were like, & what we would do outside of the barn. We weren't actually staying in Wellington, we were five minutes outside of Wellington, in Loxahatchee. The road where our barns were, was this beautiful winding road full of four board fence on each side. People were riding in their arenas, & on the side of the road. There were immaculate barns with gorgeous arenas. I went right to work when we got there, & that's where my six weeks began. Mondays were warm up days - Tuesdays were full work days - Wednesdays were full work days - Thursdays were trail days - Fridays were full work days - Saturdays were full work days - Sundays were off days. This was the schedule we lived by. I also forgot to mention that we had two different barns, six horses at each barn. Thankfully, they were right across the street from each other. But, I did a lot of running. On Friday nights, we went to the Global Dressage Festival & watched the Grand Prix freestyles under the lights. Saturday nights consisted of going to WEF & watching whatever was going on that night. During the week in our free time, we'd explore Wellington... Well, when we needed to go find food or go to the grocery store. Tackeria was my biggest nightmare & paradise all at the same time. The store was huge & it was the only decent tack shop in Wellington. We went often for the basic things like fly spray & Fox Fire. It was difficult to walk out of Tackeria with only those things. Thankfully, I didn't blow my money there like I thought I would end up doing. I enjoyed watching the lessons my trainer took with Anne Gribbons & Debbie McDonald.

Mirror Selfies Are Mandatory

I learned a lot from just watching & listening. I also enjoyed being surrounded by big, lovely horses. Dargenzio, sticking 16.2 hh, looked tiny compared to all of the other horses there. We also stuck out like a sore thumb, just a bit. The horses down there were nice & round, & Dargenzio is just awkward, long & lanky. There's a big difference between a dressage horse & an event horse. But oh well, I still love him & love what we do. Even though I was in Wellington, I still had a Horse Trial to attend two weeks after I got there. There was no turning back, I entered & there were no refunds... Anyway, Dargenzio didn't get to jump while we were down there & only got to gallop once, since he went nuts about it when we did. He also hadn't schooled since the beginning of January, so I knew this show was just going to be awesome... My trainer also couldn't come since she was going to a different show. Dargenzio came up with Cellulitis the week before the show. It had started off as Scratchies but quickly developed into Cellulitis overtaking his whole leg. After trying to treat it ourselve's (& failing), we called the Vet out to prescribe him some antibiotics. She gave him a loading dose of antibiotics since I was leaving for the show in three days, & gave him enough antibiotics for a week after the show as well. I wrapped him every night & he basically had the whole week before the show off (Perfect, right?!). He was sound & happy again the day we were leaving. His tendon was still puffy from infection but he was sound, so I did a lesson at 7 the morning I was leaving. The swelling in his tendon actually went down after riding him, because we were getting his blood circulating. Then, he hopped on the trailer & went schooling. I took him schooling at Rocking Horse, on the way up to the show. He was fabulous & schooled quite a bit of Training stuff. I was pretty confident with the way things went, that the Horse Trial would be no problem. The swelling in his leg quickly reduced after schooling as well, his tendon was actually back to normal. After sitting in his stall for a few hours, it came right back up but I was confident it wouldn't make him go lame since it would go down with riding. So, it was Dargenzio & I all alone. We did have my best friend, Lily, & her horse though. So, we weren't 100% alone. The show was actually pretty peaceful, for the most part, being just Lily & I with our parents. It did rain the whole time we were there, though, & that put a major damper on everything. Our stalls flooded & of course, Florida Horse Park doesn't have permanent stabling so the temporary stalls had maybe a foot of overhang. If you wanted to stay dry, you had to be in the stall. Dressage was decent, he was extremely tense but that was understandable considering they had 7 rings going... & we were at the very end, so we had to walk past warm up for all of those rings. We scored a 34, which is pretty normal for us. We had cross country the next day. I really was excited about 8AB & 9. It was a roll top, bending line to a big ditch, bending line to a big brush fence. Ditches were no problem for Dargenzio... Until we got up to this combination, where we got eliminated. He trucked it around the first half of the course & was fabulous, but then the ditch apparently scared the snot out of him. According to my parents, it was also filled with water as we were running in the pouring rain... He stopped three times which causes elimination. They allowed me to finish the course, I'm assuming they were probably going over the stops again & again to make sure they were correct. He did everything else well. I'm happy we at least got to finish the course. We didn't get to do show jumping on Sunday so we left as soon as Lily had show jumped. Back to Wellington I went. Typically, I would've went home & schooled the crap out of him before our next show. But since I had a job to do, I couldn't do that.

Schooling At Rocking Horse

Don't get me wrong, I loved being in Wellington & working for such a great person. But, I knew in my heart that I needed to get back out on the cross country course as soon as possible. I also kept kicking myself for weeks after that show, I should've rode harder. Since it was a ditch, & he's never been scared of them, I was intending on him just taking me to it... So, I didn't ride hard at all. I'm still kicking myself for it. The winning score was a 36, out of THIRTY competitors. If I would've finished on my dressage score, I would've won. UGH. Oh well, we live & we learn. I got back into a normal routine once we got back to Wellington & our dressage work just kept getting better & better. At this point, I actually thought I had a chance at scoring better than I typically do. Dargenzio was so much steadier in the connection (& I was too). Once we got that steady connection, we could try just about anything. We began schooling counter canter loops & leg yields. I also found that Dargenzio works better if he canters first (& that still seems to be the case, today). I also learned that a lot of dressage trainers canter their horses first because they also work better after cantering before doing trot work. The weeks flew by in Wellington. & it was almost like counting down the days until we were forced to go home. While I was in Wellington, I entered the March Horse Trial at Poplar Place Farm. I know Poplar, I've been there a million times, & I had no problem entering this show which was scheduled for two weeks after we got home. I also entered the March schooling show at Florida Horse Park, scheduled for 5 days after I got home, to get Dargenzio back on THAT course & jump THAT ditch again. If you ever go to Wellington, you'll understand the feeling. The last week we were there, it was really bittersweet... More bitter than sweet. No one wanted to leave.

Genzo Heading Home

We didn't want to leave the beautiful rolling four board fence, or the immaculate horses, or the fabulous trainers - We didn't want to leave that atmosphere. That's what I liked most about Wellington. Everyone down there is a horse person, they understand. You see more trucks than cars, carrying hay around in the back of your truck is normal, & seeing more than 10 horse trailers on a daily basis, is normal too. I didn't want to leave that atmosphere. But of course, I had to. I am so thankful for the opportunity that I got, to work in Wellington. It was a great experience for me & Dargenzio. I hope to go back next season, but for less time next go around. Doing just dressage really took a toll on Dargenzio, mentally. By the end of our time in Wellington, he was spooking, flying across the arena, & spinning & rearing... Because he needed to jump. There are plenty of places to jump in Wellington, & I hope to explore those places next year as I'll be mobile. Goodbye Wellington, I'll see you later.

I will post Part 2 later, when I can sit down & write again. I figured this bit was long enough for one entry. Coming up in Part 2 - FHP Schooling Show, March HT at Poplar, moving & what happened when I got home from Wellington. Stay tuned! (: