What's Up Wednesday!

What a week it's been! Friday we had a super bowl party at work which was delicious, but I forgot to take photos.... Sorry. We had an impressive spread though. Nacho bar, sandwiches, dips, chips, you name it, it was there. So much yum. So not good for my waistline. So worth it.
Friday evening I had my last lesson before heading down to visit Badger. I rode a new horse who was supposed to be super easy. He totes a modified adult around. You'd think that would be a walk in the park right? Nope. Apparently, really easy horses are really ridiculously hard for me. He was really good, I just had the hardest time keeping him forward to the jumps. Every time I came out of the turn, I wanted to take back and shorten his stride. Which you know, is completely wrong in every instance. We got better as it went along, but definitely was not my finest moment on horseback.
Saturday I spent the morning running errands and grooming my tall kids. I'm happy to report that despite the 18" inches of snow that CT is getting tomorrow, shedding season is in full effect.

my foot for reference... that's a lot of hair.

After pony groomies were done, I got cleaned up and headed over to a friend's chili cookoff. I didn't make one, but I was excited to vote for the winner. Being a judge is no joke! It meant tasting 16 different chilis! That's a LOT of chili. There were many tasty ones, and two that were delicious but not all that chili like. One was basically just taco meat with all the fixings on the side. To me it was more of taco bowl. Which was delicious, but didn't count as chili to me. Another had pasta in it. It was also delicious, but was more like a casserole than a chili. In the end, my favorite was this one:

It was from team Chili Snake. It had a bite to it, but not too much. And was definitely my favorite out of the 16.
Team Make Chili Great Again provided hats for all. I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to wear it since it looks much like THAT GUY's campaign hats... but in the end, I though it was kind of funny anyway...

And if Katie was wearing one, I figured I could too.
After all the chili eating, I headed home to feed the animals and pack for Florida. I'm the WORST packer and it pretty much took me the entire evening. But hey, it got done!
Sunday, I was up early to drop the short kids off with their grandma:

They're super excited, clearly. Once they were settled in with Grandma, I did a few last minute things in the barn, and headed up to the airport. Apparently, people don't fly on Sunday's because this is what the terminal looked like:

Pretty much deserted! I'm traveling on Sunday's from now on! It got a bit busier as it got closer to flight time, but still, it was very quiet. My plane was pretty full though.
My accommodations are a bit different this trip. My sister-in-law, her mom, and my two nieces are down this week also, and they were suffering from the noro-virus earlier in the week... I decided I didn't want to be exposed to that after having it last year. No thanks. Nope. Nuh-uh. So I decided to stay on dad's boat instead.

Not a bad gig. I'm closer to all my favorite restaurants, and I have the whole boat to myself. That includes control of the TV. The only down side is I'm about 45 minutes away from the horse show. Hey, nothing's perfect.
Monday and Tuesday I rode Badger and Cara at my trainer's barn.

Badger feels great! I haven't jumped him since he showed today and will tomorrow hopefully (more on that shortly). But I did get to jump Cara a little on Tuesday. I was not good. Thankfully, she's perfect and doesn't take offense at a monkey clinging to her mane. If she ever goes on clearance sale, she should probably join my herd.
Which brings us to today! I was actually going to pay a braider to do Badger since I didn't have braiding tools here in Florida. But we couldn't find a braider to come do him. So last night I went to Michaels and got yarn and braiding tools, and was up fairly early to get him all braided.

Baby's first braids!

Once I was done with his mane, he went out for a lunge. He was a little wild since it was his first day at the show. He tried to jump up and buck, but somehow stepped on his own leg and literally fell down. I'm so glad I wasn't the one lunging him!

Photo of him not falling down

Thankfully he got right up, and despite a cut just above his coronet band (just high enough to not cause an emergency, thank you horse show gods) he was none the worse for the wear. He was quite humbled though! So I suppose that was good. We brought him back to the barn once he finished lunging and got him cleaned up. The wound wasn't too bloody, and thankfully wasn't as bad as it looked like it might be. So we decided to show him as planned. My trainer was only doing him the 2'6" hunters, so we figured he should be fine to do that. He started out a bit stiff under saddle, but he worked right out of it. Who isn't stiff after they fall down! But I'm worried he may be VERY stiff tomorrow, so we're not 100% sure if he's showing again this week. We'll see how he looks in the morning.

Anyway, once he warmed up he looked great, so we felt good about letting him show. Today was a bit of an experiment with him. Other than the short lunge in the morning, we didn't prep him at all. He showed in a ring he's never been in, with no morning ride. He was a little strong, and played a bit after the single oxer, but was otherwise really good! He got better and better as the course went on. It was too bad there were only two classes, because he would have finished up great with one or two more times around. Tomorrow, if he's sound, he's going to have a little bit longer lunge and we'll see how he goes!
I didn't get to ride today because we were at the show for so long. I had to drive back up the boat, and then get back down to Wellington for an event at 6:30, so time was tight. That's ok though, I should have time to ride tomorrow. Probably just Cara since Badger hopefully will show.
The event I attended this evening was a cocktail hour hosted by my alma mater Skidmore. It was great to see my fellow horse showing Skiddies outside of the show grounds. I got to see some people I haven't seen in quite some time which was extra nice.
And that's it for today!

What's Up Wednesday!

This Wednesday was my fake Monday. You can imagine what that's like... Oye. So glad it's only a three day week for me! I'm already ready for Friday. Anyway... Let's talk about my week in Florida, shall we?!
So Thursday morning, I headed down to the barn to ride Badger first thing. We just flatted since I haven't ridden in 100 years a few weeks. He was perfect! When you don't see your baby horse for awhile, it's amazing how different he is when you finally do get on him. No spooks, no bucks, just a good pony. Yay!

Every time I try to take a photo with him...

After riding and cleaning tack because I'm a good little amateur when I'm in Florida, I headed over to the horse show to meet up with Devon for some blogger fun! I managed to not get lost on my way to the grand prix ring to find her, and we immediately headed to the bar lunch. We were well behaved and ate salads. Weird I know. After eating and sharing ten million stories about our ponies, we headed over to hunter land to watch the 3'3" Performance hunters. The show was really light since it was the holiday week, so we didn't have much to watch. We did wander the vendors though too. And took a fab selfie of course:

selfie or it didn't happen!

 Devon had to get back to her family, and I guess I did too, ha! My dad and step mom were down at the same time as me this trip. We said our goodbyes around 3 with promises to meet up again soon. I headed back north and then did some work for a bit before dinner.
Friday morning it was back to the barn for more Badger time! Kind of... So the vet was coming out at 10:30 to re-check his back and make sure everything is as good as it feels. But you know how it is with vets. 10:30 got later and later. While I was waiting, I got to ride Cara though. She's just coming back to work after some time off, so it was all walk/trot. Since I'm horribly out of shape, that was pretty much right up my alley. The vet finally arrived around 12:45 and actually just wanted to see him lunge. I guess I should have ridden him earlier! I had to leave by 1:30 that day, so he got the day mostly off. At least he got a good report from the doctor.

After pony time, we had massage appointments. (There are perks to vacationing with the parents.) I really love a good massage, but this one just kind of hurt without the reward. I think I needed more time. We went to Costco after that. My dad loves Costco which makes it a pretty entertaining family outing. We really know how to have a good time.
Saturday I got to ride both Badger and Cara. I was a little nervous Badger might be fresh after the day off. Plus it was really windy. But he wasn't at all. I think maybe he's growing up? We "jumped" some raised cavelletti's and a few cross rails and called it a day. Cara was allowed to bump her trotting time up to ten minutes so I got some strength training in on her. (She takes a lot of leg.) I got back fairly early, so I stopped and got the screen replaced on my phone. Everything is so conveniently located in Florida. Not like home where I have to drive forty minutes for anything other than gas or groceries!
The last many years, we've spent New Year's Eve the same way. Relaxing at home with a delicious dinner and ridiculous assortment of desserts. This year was no different.

Steaks, lobster tails, crab legs, potatoes, and salad

assorted tarts, mousse, and yes, those are chocolate dipped cheesecakes 

In case you're wondering, yes, I came home fatter than I left.
My trainer has been taking Sundays off lately instead of Mondays since her daughter started school this year. That way they get a full day in together each week. So instead of riding on Sunday, my fam and I headed to the Collonade at Sawgrass Mills. High end outlets my friends! I was fairly well behaved and didn't break the bank. Thank goodness there aren't any tack stores there.

Monday morning was my last ride on Badger before heading home. He was great once again. I'm starting to feel where I do stupid things like take my leg off for no reason. I'm also feeling where sometimes he makes mistakes that aren't actually all my fault. Who knew?! Green horses... I wish I could have a big chunk of time to just ride him every day and lesson a few times a week so I could actually get to know him! #firstworldproblems

I rode Cara too because you don't say no to riding really nice, well-behaved horses. You just don't do it. Especially before heading north to the tundra.
The rest of my day was spent getting family mani/pedi's and then I wandered off on my own for a little post holiday sale shopping at the mall. Next thing I knew, I was packing up to go home and crawling into bed.
Travel day was uneventful and I was super happy to get home and see my tall kids! I fed them and cleaned up in the barn, unpacked my suitcases, and then went right over to my mom's to claim the short kids. Mom made me dinner because she's awesome like that.
And that brings us to today which was a long, busy day at work. I followed that up the best way with grooming all the tall kids and snuggling with the short ones.
How was your week? Did you get to ride? Have a crazy New Year's Eve? Let's chat in the comments!