It's Richland Week! and some other horse-related updates

AHHHHH!!!!!  This time last year I was sitting around, packing my trailer, but I still couldn't ride my horse.  The little turd ran through a fence and I hauled him down on Monday to the vet to see if we could still head up to Michigan and compete on the weekend.  While we got the go-ahead for that, when I got on him Wednesday we had a freak accident where he caught his girth with a shoe and ripped the saddle out from underneath me.  Goose then proceeded to panic and gallop all over the place, including 3 miles down the asphalt road, with my saddle between his hind legs, while I chased him, unable to move my left arm.  Needless to say I ended up in a sling and had to vetwrap my shoulder in order to compete a couple of weeks later, and no Richland for us.

This year my wonderful princess decided to pull a shoe on his final gallop, which actually did not set us back at all.  It has just locked him in a stall for three days, and he walked for about 20 minutes with it heavily wrapped yesterday.  Today and tomorrow we are taking lessons, so that will hopefully eliminate any chance of shenanigans.  I am making it to Michigan this year!  And then once I get there I am finishing with a number!  This event also marks the 2-year anniversary of Sunny's injury, when I had to withdraw before the show jumping on Sunday and thought I'd never compete the horse again.  I am putting all that taboo behind me this year and am going to go rock it!

Deb is coming with me- so she and Jest can kick some major butt in the Training.  Maddie is out and about with her main man Milo again, hoping to knock some rust off and beast around that Novice course before Dunnabeck.  Miss Faith is bringing Kip so they can be fancy-pants all weekend.  Liz from Indiana is bringing her stunning grey Apollo and I cannot wait to actually get to watch them and not have her beating the pants off of Goose on the flat :-).  I am also thrilled to have Cheryl and Sunny back with us at another event! I had such a blast running the preliminary with this chick at River Glen, I know this weekend will be even more fun!  Hello getting to play with the big kids!

Unfortunately St. Louis is in a state of emergency- and I wasn't even talking riots.  The mini event I was going to take the boys to got over 3in of rain in 12 hours and so they cancelled.  While I was extremely bummer, it did mean that I got to sleep a little (6 hours) longer than originally planned on Sunday morning.  I then loaded Cullen up and took him over to the River to River hunter pace to get him out again.  He was a perfect gentleman for his first trip off the farm alone!  I could not have been more proud of him, and as a result he is now going to Dunnabeck, and in the NOVICE!  I must have fallen and hit my head somewhere along the line because I also sent in an entry for Louis!  Haha.  I now have 3 horses entered for Dunnabeck, but thankfully there will be about a million people running around, so I'm hoping I can recruit help if I need it :-)

I also got everything approved and all of the money raised for our Thoroughbred awards!  I am so excited.  I am working on another $120 to get some really nice overall awards, so anyone who could even give $10 or $20 I would appreciate it!  This is a chance to win back something really cool!  You all know that you want Dunnabeck to have the reputation as a kick-a event with bad-a prizes, so lets get on it!  And hopefully someone from our barn wins the cash and the overall prize!

My last little bit of news is that I went on a date last night, and all I'm saying is that I do not think there will be a second one.  He is nice and all but ummm yeah.  I'm just leaving it at that for now.

Until next time!  Send us good vibes for the weekend!  I'll try and have a quick post or two up throughout the weekend

Courtney