Requiem for my eye...

What do you get when you mix working in a barn and running out of contact lenses?

The short story:
A very unattractive infected eye.


The long story:
A week ago I ran out of contact lenses. I called the optometrist and they said they would only order me new lenses if I came in for a re-check (since the prescription I've had for the last two years may have changed drastically since my last check), so instead they ordered me one pair of "trial" lenses, which would come in a week. Of course, the next day I put a tiny rip in the only pair of contacts I had. Since I work in a barn and ride about four crazy horses every day, glasses are not exactly the choice vision aid. So, I decided to wear my ripped contact until my new lenses came. Smart, I know. Two days ago, while tearing up at the end of "Requiem for a Dream," I got a horrible pain in my eye followed by lots of swelling and more tears. I looked in the mirror and about passed out when I saw what it looked like! I made it to the Premier Immediate Medical Care center in Exton, PA (http://www.premierimc.com), and was diagnosed with a pretty bad eye infection. Awesome. Now I have to take antibiotics and I can't wear my contacts for a week!

A Very Turkey Vacation!

A TON has gone on in the past two months! Firstly, I would like to share the good news that I was asked by Phillip and Evie to join them when Phillip moves the competition horses down south to Aiken, South Carolina mid-January to late March. It is a pretty huge deal to have them ask me to continue working with them, so I've got to step it up to keep things going as well as they have!

The barn has been bustling trying to send horses home for vacation (they get a few weeks off in the winter) and bring in the babies to break for the spring. PD had a fall a few weeks ago on a young horse in the jumping arena which gave us all a reality shock as to how easy something can go wrong with horses. He and the horse he was riding were both bruised a bit but are just fine.

Unfortunately, the horse I wrote about in my last blog (O.D.), had to be humanely euthanized this past week. He was found to have a serious neurological condition which would cause his legs to disconnect from his brain, so it was not safe for him to continue. The entire barn was very upset, but I was glad to see how well the situation was handled. This was my first experience with putting a horse down at TPF and it was extremely hard. We all have had a lot of time working with every horse here, so every one has an impact! Hopefully this one was my last!

Sully and I have been continuing the struggle to work well with each other. I've been lucky to receive help from Jennie Brannigan, who I respect for how well she's been able to handle him. I've been told he's a very difficult horse to ride, so I'm glad it hasn't been just me! I am also still in the search for a new horse that will be able to teach me again instead of the opposite. Hopefully I can find Sully a home that will do well with him while I continue my search for my next champion :)

This past Thursday I was given the opportunity to be home for Thanksgiving with my family in Northern Virginia. It was a great time and I was able to reconnect with everyone. My brother Tristan and I briefly considered going to the Leesburg Outlets at midnight on Black Friday, but were glad we didn't go after watching the news this morning!! Maybe next year...


Mom cooking the Thanksgiving feast!


Tristan adding a little "spice" to his egg nog :)


Keana passed out from all the excitement!!

Another Day at TPF!

Today was a bit crazy at the farm. We had an incident this morning where a horse Ryan was riding wasn't jumping well, so Phillip got on to work out the kinks and the horse's back legs just started buckling underneath it. I was helping set fences, so I had to run back to the barn and grab everyone to come help. Kevin, our vet, looked at him and said it was probably something neurological.. hopefully not EPM! He did blood work, so we're waiting to see.

I got to ride a horse Phillip owns named Houston, and may be looking to buy. Everyone here thinks I'm crazy because he's definitely not the easiest horse to ride, but I did flat work with him today and actually felt pretty good. I'm supposed to have a jump lesson on him with Phillip tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. I'm also trying one of Chip's young horses, which Ryan rode today and thought it was quite fancy for the price.

Tomorrow after work I'm heading home to VA to prepare for the Carolina Communication Association Conference. I'm on two panels for a paper I wrote senior year at Salem about ESPN's portrayal of female athletes. I haven't done academic work since May.. it will be so nerve-racking! I'm trying horses at Jan Simmons', heading to Wilmington, NC on Friday morning, presenting Friday afternoon for Salem and Saturday morning for competition, flying back to DC Saturday, and driving back to PA Sunday afternoon. Going to be a very busy weekend!

Also, Nate gave me a lesson with Silva Martin, a German-born AMAZING dressage rider and instructor at the farm (she's married to Boyd), so I'm super excited to see what she thinks about Sully next week. I am trying to sell him as a dressage horse, so this will tell!!

Plantation Bareback Puissance?!

Phillip & Jacob Two Two (he went to the Athens Olympics in 2004!) gearing up for the Puissance wall!!

Last day of Plantation Horse Trials and a crazy one it was! Phillip gave us the opportunity to take a break from work and watch the CIC*** at 11:30, so we rode some of our assigned horses and headed over. When we got there, they were finishing up the CIC**, so I got to see Skyeler go (she was in my Pony Club years ago!) and she ended 3rd with Tika. Then they did a dedication ceremony, which was really cool. This was Plantation's very first CIC, and it was a HUGE success! There are 7 Olympic riders in Chester County and 9 were at the show (David and Karen O'Connor came, too). Pretty crazy! After the ceremony they did a bareback puissance, which consisted of riders like Bobby Costello, Phillip Dutton, Ryan Wood, our Irish foxhunt friend Nile, the Chester County huntmaster, and a few others. They set up the wall to 5 foot 3 inches! It was awesome.

Phillip & Jacob clearing the wall!

Following the puissance was the CIC*** showjumping. Luckily Phillip had all the help he needed, so Susanna and I were able to watch pretty much the entire group. I got to see my trainer from NC, Susan Beebee, and her amazing horse Prowler jump around. They had a beautiful round! Phillip did really well with Danny (he can have his spaz out moments), and jumped around clean with 3 out of his 4 horses (2 were Jan Byyny's, but she has a broken leg!).

When we got back to the farm, I had to ride Sully and then took off to look at some horses at Jane Sleeper's farm at 4:30. Saw a few good youngsters and headed back to the farm for some good rest. All in all, another great event for TPF!

Phillip & Che Italica jumping around the CIC*** Show Jumping.

Plantation Craziness

This week/weekend was Plantation Horse Trials and CIC. Luckily this event was about 15 minutes away, so transporting horses to and from the event was pretty easy. Today was the x-country day, and the weather was PERFECT! Nate was one of the commentators, and he interviewed Phillip, Bruce, Skyeler, and other CIC riders during the competition. It was pretty entertaining :)

Phillip scheduled all the horses at True Prospect to have the day off, so those of us who were working could finish up the morning barn chores and help him with his CIC horses in the vet box. It was my very first experience in a CIC vet box, and oh the craziness! Horses walking everywhere, breathing heavy, sweating like crazy, 20 people walking with them trying to get vitals and grooms trying to take off the equipment and get them cooled down all at the same time, just insanity. I was stationed at the "cooling station," so I pretty much stayed in one spot and sponged the horses with ice water when they were done with the vets. Phillip did great, only having a few minor stops on a horse who may be having health problems right now. Besides Phillip, we had Liz riding Benjamin in the CIC**, and they jumped around clean. I watched her go, and she rode the water complex like a champ! It reminded me of going prelim on Elliott and made me that much more eager to find a new horse to get back in the game!

We also had a few riding in the Horse Trials portion of the event. Phillip won the Preliminary on Rocky (his very first prelim!), Ryan got 3rd on his mare Legend, Susanna had a mishap and was unseated xcountry on her mare Nina, and Kevin jumped around clean on his and Gomez's first Prelim (ending in 15th). All in all pretty successful! We're still waiting for the show jumping of the CIC tomorrow.

In other barn news, one of Nina's babies, Diva, left us to go to the racetrack yesterday. In her place, we gained DaVinci! DaVinci is a baby that had its last race this past Wednesday. I think it'll need a bit of time off! We also gained Chip and Ryan's recovered Intermediate horse, Wolf. Last night I had to meet the shipping van at midnight to collect Willie, a horse from Minnesota I know nothing about! Also, we've been lucky to care for the O'Connor's horse, Mandiba, for the weekend. Karen had a non-riding mishap and broke her arm, so it has been VERY entertaining watching her give Phillip riding lessons!!

Tomorrow I'm headed to try out some of Jane Sleeper's young horses for sale. Should be another interesting day!!

AEC's and a Roommate!

Phillip and the crew are on their way back from the American Eventing Championships. Things went pretty well, but everyone who had faults knew they could have changed things to make them better.

Final Results:

Advanced (6)

Phillip - 2nd

Nate - 3rd

Jennie - 6th

Intermediate (16)

Jennie - 1st

Phillip - 5th

Preliminary (39)

Phillip - 5th

Training (19)

Phillip - 2nd

Novice (40)

Phillip - 2nd

LeeLee - 4th

Jennie - 8th

All in all a pretty successful show! Back at True Prospect we're all busy preparing the upper-level horses for Plantation next weekend. Sully and I aren't competing since it's only Preliminary and up (we're going Novice), but there are a bunch that have to be exercised while Phillip is gone.

In personal news, I entered Sully in his first show of the season the other day (pretty exciting!). Phillip gave me the okay to enter something, so we're going novice at Morven Park Horse Trials in VA. I also got a roommate at the apartment in PA. Her name is Susanna Holder and she's from California. She has a gray mare named Nina who has been going Prelim/Intermediate, so she's psyched to start working with Phillip to get things moving. It's pretty nice to have a roommate since it's so quiet being here alone!

Nate gets back with Ping, Vidalia, Rolex, and Rocky tonight, so I'll be helping him unload the ponies. It's also the True Blood season finale on HBO, so I'm going to have to take over his TV... (shh.. he doesn't know it yet!). Day off on Thursday!!

Cleaning up at the AEC's!

True Prospect is really "bringing it" at the American Eventing Championships!

So far (after dressage and xcountry):

Advanced:

1st: Nate on Rolex

3rd: Phillip on Woodburn

6th: Jennie on Cooper

Intermediate

1st: Phillip on Wild Tiger

2nd: Jennie on Ping

Preliminary

1st: Phillip on Vidalia

Training:

2nd: Phillip on Rocky

Novice

3rd: Lee Lee on Cadet

4th: Phillip on Ula

17th: Jennie on Whiskey

Can't wait for tomorrow!!

Oh what a day!

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because it has just been crazy getting settled here at True Prospect. Things with me are going so much better after a bit of a rocky start getting used to the craziness that is here! My horse Sully is doing loads better after some lessons with Ryan Wood.. his jumping was a little difficult but is starting to come along quite well. In the last two weeks we've lost two of our barn helpers, Veronica (school) and Candace (home), which is sad but also makes the barn work a bit more difficult! Phillip is in England at Burghley with his head groom, Emma, so the barn tasks here are pretty much up to us. On a general day, we feed, bring in night turnout horses, turn out day horses, muck stalls, sweep, tack and untack horses for Ryan and Jennie Brannigan, ride our own horses, feed lunch, bring in day horses, set jump courses, wrap legs, groom each horse, feed dinner, turn out night horses, sweep, and put away the laundry. It starts at 7am and usually ends around 5pm. Every day is a long day!

Today was a very interesting day. It started by my waking up at 6:20 with one eye swollen shut. I called Kelley (the head honcho while Emma is away) and got her permission to miss this morning at the barn, and drove to the Jennersville Hospital to get things checked out. Turns out I got a bacterial infection in my eye. Awesome. The thing that really ooks me out is the fact that there has been an eye "thing" spreading around the horses that I've been treating lately. Sick.

After my ER excitement this morning, I made it to work with a slightly sore eye and a lot of commentary from the barn folks! Just a minor setback :)

Nina came to watch all of her horses today, so that was an adventure! I was elected to set jumps, so I worked through 9 horses of different jump heights. I enjoyed watching the horses jump, as I'm usually stuck in the barn area most of the day and don't get to see the horses go. They're pretty talented!

We had a few little lameness issues and a mare gashed her leg on a stall waterer, but health-wise it was an okay day.

Jennie finished her rides today and headed off to join Phillip at Burghley through a grant she was given. We are all pretty jealous! We found out today that after day 1 of the dressage, Phillip is in first.. at BURGHLEY!! You can definitely tell that everyone who works here is pretty proud.

After work, I looked at a mare at Bruce Davidson's barn for a possible fun project while I get Sully going. As with everything else, the more you look around the better, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for a good little project horse.

Time for bed!

Phillip Dutton's: Day 1

Day 1 of me as a working student for Phillip Dutton. The trip was about 3 hours from Northern VA to here in West Grove, PA. I ended up paying about $32 in tolls on I-95. One toll was $23! It was just crazy. I can definitely tell here is Amish land- I've been stuck behind about 3 horse-carts. I got here about 3:30 and unloaded Sully in to the barn. My old friend Nate lives/works here, so it was nice having someone to show me around and get me acquainted with everyone. I'm staying in an apartment underneath the office/indoor arena viewing area. That means on my day off I can go upstairs and watch people riding in the ring :) My place has a living area, mini kitchen, and separate room for my bed. I haven't been able to get the a/c working in my room, so hopefully I can tough it out tonight and get it fixed tomorrow! For dinner tonight Nate took me to a nearby bar/restaurant. It was full of horse people which was really neat. I miss being in the horse world. This is definitely a headfirst dive in to it! Well, I'm off to bed.. gotta be up and ready for a long day starting at 7am tomorrow!

Litchfield Beach Days 4,5,6,7

Home, bittersweet home from the beach! I have to say that this trip was one of the best beach trips we've ever taken. There were no "too-much-time-together" disagreements which made the whole trip better! The weather was PERFECT. We got a few storms the first day, but then it was hot, hot, HOT! the rest of the week. We really lucked out! On Friday, Tristan, me, two cousins and their two kids all went to the Music Festival Park in Myrtle. There were some really neat roller coasters and rides, and it was so much more fun having an excuse to ride the kid rides :) Saturday mom, Tristan and I went to the Tanger Outlets to hit up the J.Crew store. It's amazing how much discounted the clothes there are. I wish we had a good outlet mall around here!

Places we ate this week were:

• Gilligan's
• Subway
• The Fish House
• Roz's Rice Mill Cafe
• Island Cafe and Deli
• The Mayor's House
• T-Bonz Steakhouse
• Quigleys Pint and Plate

Overall it was a really fun trip and I'm sad it's over!! On to the real world. Packing for Phillip's and heading up there with Sully on Wednesday!

Litchfield Beach Days 1, 2, 3, 4

This week is family beach week at Litchfield Beach in South Carolina. It's a bit south of Myrtle Beach but north of Hilton Head. It's not so touristy which is really nice, so the beaches are really clean and not crowded. Mom, dad, Tristan, and I packed up the Commander and made our way down on Sunday the 2nd. Traffic wasn't too bad, so we made it in about 8 hours (after dropping Sully off at Patricks on the way up so he could be ridden this week). So far the weather has been perfect. We got a few thunderstorms the first two days, but it has been nice and steamy hot since then. I've been trying to lather up the suntan lotion so I don't get too fried while I'm here! Grandma has been staying with us in our condo in Inlet Point, and we've really enjoyed having her. It's crazy with the family. Usually Tristan and I spend a lot of time with our cousins, but this year has been very different! Cousins brought their boyfriends and new babies- Busy, busy group! Grandma, dad, mom, 2 uncles, 2 aunts, brother, 4 cousins, 2 cousins' sig others, and 2 cousins' kids! It's a great group, though. Last night we wandered over to a restaurant in the Hammock Shops, and I had the best meal I think I've ever had in my life. Of course I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but I had the lobster linguine. Melt in your mouth lobster linguine. Here are a few of my favorite pictures so far:

Onward and Upward

Today I concluded my summer job of exercising horses in the Clifton/Fairfax Station area. I met some really great people and feel really happy to have made such great connections (future job possibilities...?). I also found out what a small world it is and what an even smaller horse world it is. It turned out by chance that I was exercising horses owned by the mother of one of the guys I graduated high school with. Very random.

In other news, one of my good friends from Salem, Kathy Ann, drove up from Alabama and stayed with me Wednesday to this morning (Friday). We got a chance to metro-in to D.C., checked out the Hirshhorn Museum (very cool), played with bubbles in the park, met up with an old friend of hers, and ate some good Irish food at Fado's near Chinatown. All-in-all I think she had a good time and I was sad to see her go! She's headed up north to New Hampshire to work with Americorps. It's nice to reconnect with Salem friends since we've all graduated and moved on. It has been hitting me especially hard since I keep seeing Facebook updates from the younger classes talking about moving back in. Last week my friend Sellen came up from Georgia and spent a night. We took a cab to Adam's Morgan so she could see the craziness that is there. I'm pretty sure she had a few good stories to take with her up to Connecticut.

As for me, I stumbled on an amazing opportunity up in Pennsylvania. My eventing friend Nate helped me get in touch with Phillip Dutton, an Australian-born eventer who has been to the Olympics a few times and won gold for Australia twice. I spoke with him and his wife, Evie, and worked out a temporary position as a working student at his farm. Basically I will be working 7am-4pm 6 days a week on the farm in exchange for the opportunity to work with one of the eventing world's greatest riders. I know that I will learn a lot about myself and am really looking forward to the experience. Sully and I will be heading up there on August 12th, so be ready for lots of those updates! I plan to blog about it as much as I can (though some days I will just be too tired).

Also, this Sunday I am heading down to Litchfield Beach with the family (mom, dad, Tristan, grandma, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 3 cousins, 2 significant others, and 2 kids of my cousin!). Hopefully it won't rain too much and I'll be able to relax a little before my big trip up north. We're staying right in Inlet Point, so it'll be convenient to the shops and things down there that we always go to. I'm ready for it!


Fountains in the park in D.C.

Bees Be Gone!! (well, soon...)

Today I learned a lot about bees from Dave at Bee Be Gone. Like, if you get stung by a yellow jacket once, it leaves a pheromone on your skin and other yellow jackets will chase you because you were the one that molested the nest. That would explain why they chased after mom when she went in my room to open my blinds- she had been stung outside a few days ago. Dave says the best way to get rid of the pheromone is to lick where you were stung.

Dave is great. His uncle was a master beekeeper.. did you know they make about $30k per farm they deliver bees to?? Now THAT's baller status. Dave did a little walk-around and found the trouble outside. Apparently if you can fit an eraser head through a hole it's big enough for a bug (or bee) to fit through. If it's as big as a nickel a mouse can fit through it, and if it's as big as a quarter a RAT can fit through. Yikes. I had a few holes in my room from where we had hung some curtains, and the bees were attracted to the light in my room. The best thing to do at that point is turn off all the lights in your house and open the blinds so the bees fly towards the window. Since bees aren't too bright, they spend about 8 hours trying to get out through the window and then they die.

Since the bees were attached to the house, Dave chose to distribute a powder substance that is used to poison the yellow jackets and dry up their environments. The chemical is poisonous to bees, but does not harm animals or humans, which is good since we have so many pets around! After spraying a significant amount of the powder on the outside of the bee holes, he checked the drywall to make sure the bees weren't chewing through. Dave says bees like to keep their hives at about 85 degrees, so you can feel a warm, soft place in the drywall if they're about to come through. He also said there can be from 500 to 5,000 bees in a nest at one time. That's a lot of bees! Fortunately he didn't find any of those warm spots in my room, so that was a relief. Mom had him check their bedroom since they had originally found the bees in there. Dave found a soft spot and went to poke his spray through the spot when it caved in and a few bees came in and stung him. That has to be a rough job! He says he only gets stung for about 4 months, then he does a lot of winter sports :) After patching up the holes and giving us the ok, we walked outside and were given an opportunity to see a few of the nests he had collected earlier today. Some of them had bees actually hatching out as he was showing them to us! All in all, I give an A+ for friendly service and (hopefully) a job well done. Bee Be Gone :) Thanks Dave!!

A collection of insects he had gathered for educational purposes

Nests he had collected that morning.. some were hatching while we were talking!

The spot in my parents bedroom where the bees came flying out.

The Bees Knees

Not a day goes by in the Hardy household without a touch of insanity. Today we got a visit from the bee kingdom, after dad had "taken control of the situation." Lately we've had a bee problem (yellow jackets?!) and the solution was to perch in very precarious places while continuously spraying them with hornet/wasp killer. Unfortunately, today we learned the hard way (or I learned the hard way) that this was a failed method. According to Dave at Bee Be Gone, these products only contain about 1% of actual chemical. What a waste. Of course, I've been telling dad to hire an exterminator for about a week, after the first case of "bees in walls" occurred in his bedroom. He had been complaining about a chewing noise in the walls- he thought they were termites, and after I Googled termites and found that you can't actually HEAR them, we discovered the bees flying IN a hole they had made in the wall outside the window. Dad got mom to precariously lean out the window and spray them, and they "disappeared." Then I heard them in my walls, so the spray came out again. Unfortunately this time it didn't end the same.

Here's the story (the long version, of course): I ordered a dress from J.Crew that was on sale in a larger size than I am, so of course I bought it. I decided in a quick-witted moment that I was going to alter the dress myself with my new sewing machine (this is the present you ask for when you turn 22) so I laid out everything I needed on my bedroom floor and started working. I had just finished riding Sully, so I had quickly changed in to house shorts and a tshirt, with no undershirt.. if you get my drift... then I heard a "bzzzz"....."bzzzzzzzzzzzz"..... thinking it was a silly barn fly I had brought in with my funk (hey- horses, sweat, dirt- it's a great life) I ignored it until I heard TWO of them. Then, I remembered the bees. Oh the bees. I glance up at the ceiling fan, there's one. Glance over at the window, another. So of course I jump up, run out of my room screaming like a 10-year-old, and slam my door. Mom had to call the bee man. On the phone with dad, it was definitely an "I TOLD YOU SO" moment. And of course, waiting for the bee man I had to find an undershirt to avoid presenting my frightened ego as funky AND "skivvy-less."

Anyone need a roommate for a while?

Home, sweet home! NC to VA

Today I made the road trip from Salem in Winston Salem, NC to home in Fairfax Station, VA. My brother, Tristan, rode with me in the Mazda3 with all my stuff from school. Mom, dad, and both grandmas rode in mom's car. Of course we had to have walky talkies to keep in touch! The trip wasn't bad since I had someone to keep me entertained. Nothing really interesting, just a lot of trees on I-85 and a LOT of trucks on I-95.

Home plans: As of yet I am in the search for a job and living at home with the parents to save some money. The economy is not too great for recent grads (bummer!). I'm also looking in to some kind of broadcasting school, so we'll see how that goes. Time for summer!!

Myrtle Beach Pre-Graduation Trip!

This week (Sunday May 17-Wednesday May 20) was spent in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

 My housemates at Salem and I decided to take a pre-graduation beach trip since we had a week of free time between final exams and the actual graduation ceremony.  After a bit of hotel research, we decided on the Sandcastle Resort at the Pavilion.  This hotel was actually fairly nice considering they had "student rates."  Previous experiences have shown that hotels that offer such rates are trashy and meant for certain disaster!  The hotel was right on the beach and the main strip of bars and things, so we felt good being in the middle of everything.

 The drive was about 4 1/2 hours from Salem to Myrtle, and we took my Mazda3 to contain us all and save some gas costs.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't hold very well from day 1, and it pretty much rained the entire trip until the last day.  It was also extremely cold, so we had to buy sweatshirts and jackets!  Of course since the weather was crummy and we were women (warning: I'm about to do some gender stereotyping!!), we ended up SHOPPING most of the trip!  Also, before we left we had decided on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the entire week, but the rain made us hungry for restaurant food!  I think I spent a total of $500 on the trip.  Just insane.  On the last day, we sat out in the sun and burnt to a crisp.  We weren't upset about it, it was the one sunny day!

Also on the trip, we were joined by two other rooms of friends.  My brother and his friend also got a room at the Sandcastle where we were staying.  Of course, they HAD to get an ocean-front room (it was like $5 more a night) to rub it in.  The other room was down the street at a different hotel (I can't remember the name).  That room was another group of Salem girls.

Places we ate were River City Cafe (though the burgers upset everyone's tummies!), Margaritaville (a traditional family restaurant with amazing margaritas), Phillips Seafood (GREAT seafood bar), The Bagel Factory (good breakfast), and Mellow Mushroom (always good pizza).  We also visited Bummz bar, but it wasn't really our "crowd."

All in all it was a really fun last trip with my Salem friends, and it'll be sad to say goodbye after graduation!

White-Water Rafting on the French Broad

Today I had the experience of white-water rafting for the first time.

This last year of college I lucked out in living with two girls who were raft guides with the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in Asheville, NC.  Since this was one of our last available days before we graduate and head in different directions, one of the girls offered to take my housemate (Lark) and I down the river.  It was a bit of a drive from Winston Salem to Hot Springs, but we got up at 5:45am and arrived in Hot Springs by about 9:45am (we took a few bathroom breaks!).  We met up with Kayla (our housemate) and her boyfriend Adam (who is also a raft guide) and had a chance to see where they would be staying this summer as they guided.  Lark and I changed in to our gear, which consisted of:

1. bathing suit
2. quick-dry long-sleeved shirt
3. quick-dry short-sleeved shirt
4. fleece sweatshirt
5. quick-dry pants
6. quick-dry shorts
7. smart-wool socks
8. water shoes
9. PFD (personal floatation device)
10. rafting helmet  

The French Broad is a class I-IV river, with quick turns and lots of interesting challenges.  Of course there were areas to relax, which would have been nice on a good day (we had rain and clouds all day!), but we tried to paddle through those pretty quickly (Lark and I got cold!).

Since it was only the four of us, we took a mini raft, which was a lot more challenging than the big rafts that groups take since it was so light and squirrelly.  There were two times when we almost lost rafters.  The first time was when we decided to "surf" a current, and ended up half-flipping our raft and dumping Lark in the river (she was quickly pulled back in by all of us).  The second time was at the end of the trip during a class IV rapid.  We hit the bottom pretty hard and spun, and I about flew out.  Fortunately, I had one foot pretty anchored in the raft and kept myself in, so I didn't have to take what they call the "deep swim".  The "deep swim" is what the raft guides call the bottom of the last class IV, because there is an 80 foot ledge under the water.  When a rafter falls in the rapid, they get sucked down for a minute before resurfacing by their PFDs.  We were told it was a pretty traumatic experience for those who didn't expect it!  I was definitely glad to be safe and anchored :)

Although the trip was quite chilly from the May-temperature water and the rain, we all had a fantastic time.  Our guides also mentioned they were excited to have hit every rapid almost perfect, so we had a great ride.

If you're interested in white-water rafting, I would definitely recommend this group:

http://www.noc.com/

They do trips all over NC, GA, and TN.

They also have duckies (smaller one-person rafts), canoes, and kayaks if you're looking for something different. 

If you decide to do the French Broad trip, ask for Kayla, Adam, Mack, or Kirby.  I guarantee they will be great guides.  Tell them Brittanie sent you!