April Adventures: Travel & Arrival

The view from our Friday night schooling ride...

Traveling to a new show facility is always stressful, especially one over 4 hours away. With this being the first time I've driven a trailer since our accident in December, it was an extra stressful trip. Thankfully, I did not have to do it alone. My husband managed an early schedule at the hospital, and headed home early on Friday to join us.

We loaded up the truck and my BO's small 2-horse Brenderup trailer for the trip. Pig loaded up fairly well, balking some at the narrowness of the trailer and the way the ramp was slightly slick with rain. He traveled well, for him, all weekend. He has never been a good traveler, sweating and shaking like a small dog in a purse the whole time he is in a trailer. I'm sure the accident did not help his mental state in the slightest.

Having never pulled a Brenderup, I was totally intrigued by them. The brakes are kind of ingenious, slowing the trailer on steep hills and balancing it out behind you. However, the light weight of the thing is obnoxious when your horse shakes. It makes the trailer feel unsteady behind the truck, which just about gave me a heart attack. After about 2 and a half hours of solid driving, I realized I hadn't let go of the wheel at all with my left hand. Talk about white-knuckling it!

Despite all the traveling nerves, we arrived at the show facility without incident and with plenty of daylight. Unfortunately, the facility was completely abandoned. One boarder was heading to her car as we pulled up. She briefly showed me the show ring and the main barn, then had to head out. Perturbed, we drove around the facility looking for our stall. Nothing.

Finally, after wandering through three barns, I found a number labeled "after hours horse show#" on a piece of paper buried in a stack. I called it, and 10 minutes later finally had the show secretary on the phone. She told me where my stall was located (small show = free stall upgrade!), and where I could ride that evening. We immediately settled in to unpacking and getting to riding.

This horse will go anywhere I point him. This facility really drove home how thankful I am for that.

Pig was a star under saddle. The arena was shadowy and spooky, and filled with loudly nesting birds, but he kept himself together and listened to me pretty well. I could tell he was tired, but I wanted him to move his legs some. We schooled for all of 30 minutes, running through the basics of 1st and 2nd. If I had known that ride would be the nicest we had all weekend, I might've enjoyed it a little more!

(Video Link)

As you can see in the video, Pig wasn't entirely through. We didn't have much of a half halt, and he was reluctant to come into my rein. Probably if I'd shortened my reins and been less stiff myself we would have had a better ride. Still, he was pushing nicely from behind. I can't complain too much.

That dark hallway is the entrance to the show arena, which was closed on Friday night. The first time we got to see the show ring was as we entered for our first test.

We settled Pig in his stall, where he was happy to get to work on some hay. Once everything was squared away at the barn, we headed up to a friend's place for the night. Showing in a city where you used to live has the advantage of giving you time to catch up with old friends. Needless to say, not a lot of sleep was had...