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: