Archives for April 2019

We were up bright and early this morning, as we have a pretty good trip to Alabama today. Didn't take long to get everything packed up, and Apollo got into the trailer with no problem, but Flash wasn't quite as ready. I've had to have Hubby tap him on the butt with a whip the last couple of times, but this time Robin came by and gave me a hand, and he finally loaded after a few minutes. We said our thank yous and good-byes and headed out the gate, once again taking mostly back roads in a direct line to Wind Creek State Park near Alexander City, AL. Another great, uneventful drive (just like I like them!), and arrived in good time. We paid for a week at registration, stopped at the dump on our way, and made our way out to the horse camp, a mostly wide open field with 20 water and electric hook-ups scattered about. We had been assigned site number 20, which was at the far end of the field tucked in the woods, nice and out of the way, perfect for us! I got the horses out and high-lined in no time, got the truck disconnected in a breeze and were settled in pretty as you please! It's nice and quiet here, I suspect we're going to have a really relaxing time here, something we'll need before we start all the hectic stuff at home next week.

A bright and early morning once the fog burned off, with lots of activity at the main barn in anticipation of the start of the Gait-way horse show. I walked down and offered my help, moved a few chairs, etc., but they pretty much had everything under control. I was asked to hand out the ribbons after each class, simple enough, but I had a great seat to watch everything, which made it nice. Frankly, I've never been much involved with horse shows of this kind, I always thought they were too subjective, and there wasn't enough participation to make it a real competition. Even with the big show in Miami, there were many classes with only one horse registered, so to me, it makes a blue ribbon kind of like worthless. In the case of this show, each ribbon earns the owner points towards the Paso Fino Nationals, so it held some significance for that reason, but it wasn't really a competition, it seemed more like people just buying a ribbon. This was a much smaller show than Miami (which was small enough, to my mind), and probably 85% of the classes only had one horse participating, so I can't say I found it all that interesting. Even the classes that had more than one horse, I couldn't really see how they were placed, as the ones I thought were out of control sometimes ended up winning. Sigh. Guess I'll just never understand it, but that's okay. The only judge I'm interested in is my horse's judgment of me on the trail, and vice versa. Nothing again folks who like the shows, I'm just not really one of them. I enjoyed handing out the ribbons, and talking with the folks there, and watching the horses, of course, but the competition itself didn't do anything for me. Afterward, I decided to saddle up Flash and see how he did on the trail course (again, there was only one competitor for that one, and it was the owner of the farm), and he did okay on some of the obstacles, but some things I didn't know how to tell him to do, like side passes, so we just skipped it. I took him over the sounding board because I always imagined he'd learned how to do that, but he hesitated at first, so maybe not. I gently persuaded him and he went, though he didn't really try to do the fino gait like they do in the big shows. I took him back and forth a few times on it, just to get him used to it, because if nothing else, it was like bridge practice. One of the other organizers name Megan told me I was really fortunate to have a horse as nice and willing as Flash (don't I know it!), though thought he was definitely more pleasure than show horse, which suits me just fine! After I put him away, they served up a big dinner which I shared with them, taking a plate back to Hubby. He had come out for a while earlier in the day for a couple of hours, but then went home when his back started to bother him. We settled in for a nice evening after our busy day!

With only 120 miles or so to go today, we left at our leisure in the morning, with a quick stop at the dump, then we took back roads up to a little town called Lamont, home of world famous Paso Fino breeder Robin Ratliff has a spectacular horse farm. Acres of rolling hills make the name absolutely appropriate, and dozens of horses running around made for a beautiful sight. Along the way, we had an unexpected Ag Stop (DO NOT TRY TO BYPASS THESE, THEY WILL COME AFTER YOU!), unexpected because I thought they were near the border, so I was planning on printing up my TN passports over the weekend so we would have them before heading into Alabama, but it seems it's not the border that's the dividing line, it's the Suwanee and St. Mary's Rivers! Never knew that! Anyway, I managed to find our most recent Coggins, and showed him the passports on my computer, which he was happy to accept. Glad to learn something new today! Anyway, we eventually arrived at Greener Pastures, met Robin and her helpers, and before long, were set up behind an outbuilding that included small apartments for her help, a laundry room and a carport where her truck was hooked up to a gooseneck horse trailer that she kept ready in case of emergency. The horses got settled in paddock, and we got settled down to our dialysis routine, which once again went perfectly. Another quiet evening on the road, which gorgeous views of horses grazing everywhere. Gorgeous!

The day has FINALLY ARRIVED! With all my careful planning, and despite Hubby's doubts that we'd make it out on time, we were ready to hit the road this morning, bright and early! Our first destination was Shangrila Campground, an excellent horse camp we'd stayed at before, right along the big greenway across much of middle Florida, just outside of Ocala, and just a few miles off Interstate 75, making it the perfect overnight stop. They also have really nice trails here for those who have a few days to stay and ride. We arrived in good time, though the hay loft caught on a tree, which broke a good size limb and bent my extension ladder a bit, taking it out of it's moorings, but otherwise there was no real damage. Then I disconnected the truck to do some errands. I wanted to fill the propane tanks, but the Tractor Supply parking lot was too small for us, and, as I suspected, you can't open the propane cupboard when the truck is hooked up, so I had to do it that way anyway. Then I ran over to the Walmart to pick up a couple of things, but mostly to get diesel fuel, which is easier when I don't have the trailer behind me. That all done, I got back to camp in plenty of time for an enjoyable evening, with the horses on a highline just outside the door. Perfect!