Christmas came and went.  We had a great time in CA seeing family.  Other than me getting a sore throat and then losing my voice on Christmas day.

We flew home on the red eye on the 27th and landed at 5 am on the 28th.  We had our car waiting for us in the lot as Rebecca had flown out the day before and had left it there for us.

It was nice to be back in Florida.  We drove home with Merlin as he flew with us on our trip.  We were pretty tired, luckily I had packed our trailer before we left and we would have very little to do today to get over to vet in at the Greenway ride.

Erebus and Dust still had their easyboot glue on shoes on from the Goethe LD ride so we were pretty much all set.

We went in and took care of a few pressing issues, then Jeremy took care of our new horse, Elvis's feet so he could be turned out with our herd and then we caught our guys and loaded up.

(Elvis arrived while we were in CA.  He was our good friend and client's horse, Carole Kraft Edwards.  He was born and raised at Jan Worthington and Grace Ramsey's farm in Illinois and was purchased by Carole after we spent the summer in 2010 with them and recommended him.)

The weather was pretty nice, especially compared with CA where it had been in the 40's mostly.  (As I write this it is 5 pm and it is 72 outside!) We vetted our guys in and then went on a very short ride.  They felt great.  Then we were off to dinner with the Olson's.  We had a fun time at Sonny's BB-Q, ribs are always great!!

That night we went to bed super early as we had been operating on about 1:30 hours of sleep all that day.  It started raining shortly after we went to sleep.  It rained all night long.  When it was time to get up it was still pouring and there were high winds and thunder and lightening.  We saddled up and headed to the start.  Jeremy noticed that there was no one else warming up.  We asked around and the start had been delayed by 30 mins. due to lightening.  So nice that they told everyone!

I rechecked in 30 mins and it was delayed another 30 mins.  At 8 am we started.  The rain had stopped and we actually did not get rained on at all!!

The day went very well, both of our first time 50 mile horses did great.  They both recovered well and ate and drank well.  I am very happy with the two of them.

At the end of the day they both looked good and they finished 4th and 5th.  A pretty good start to their careers.

Have a Happy New Years and hope to see you at the Gator Run 2 day ride.

Heather

Well Goethe has come and gone and I am tardy on writing this. I am also in CA on Holiday for Christmas, and more info: we did the Goethe Saturday, packed up went home that night, went back for awards Sunday, unpacked the trailer, repacked the trailer for a 50 with Dust and Erebus on the 29th (we get back from CA the morning of the 28th) then packed for CA and flew out Monday.

All 7 horses vetted in fine for the Goethe ride.  Saturday morning was nice after Fridays chilliness.  I was able to start in a T-Shirt without too much discomfort.

Stirgess and Cleo warmed up together and Vegas and Chanses warmed up together.  It was an uneventful start.

The loops flew by and Cleo and Stirgess got to do the first 2 loops together as the 100 and 75 were common to that point.  It was nice and relaxing. 

When we got into vet check one we had a great crew waiting for us.  Skip, Lynn and Mark Ashby, Mark DeVoti and Brett Lain.  Super awesome.  Both horses pulsed down although Cleo is a freak and out pulsed us by a minute or two!  Stirgess didn't mind her leaving to go pulse.

As we were getting ready to leave Rachel and Chanses and Erica and Vegas came in.  They were doing well also.

On loop two Jeremy and I were only about a mile out of the vet check when it became obvious that we were coming up on the LD riders that had just started their ride!  What a drag for everyone!  We had to now pass the 44 LD riders while racing our race, the poor riders on green horses that had tried to start in the back were now going to be passed by all of the front runners from the 75 and 100.  Bad planning.  Oh well, we slowed down each time and made sure no one got dumped.

We did get to see Erebus and Dust because of this though as they were both on the LD.

After the first two loops Jeremy and I headed separate ways on different loops.  Stirgess is really fun and he was just cantering along.  This loop got really hot and humid so it was our slowest loop of the ride, we averaged 11 mph.  We had been averaging 11.4. 

At the next vet check I saw Sarah and Nixon and they looked great doing the 1*. 

So far all were doing well. At the last vet check for my 75, mile 60, I trotted Stirgess out and he wasn't right.  The vets said to come back for a recheck so we went and crewed for him and then I did some practice trot outs and he looked questionable.  I represented him and  he vetted out lame.  The vets couldn't decide on a leg as it was subtle, so I guess that is better than being super lame.

In the meantime the 2 rookies finished the LD, Erebus and Dust.  They looked great, Rebecca and Elaine took great care of them.

Cleo came in and had her vet check and then headed out on her second to last loop.  Rachel left for her last loop and it was going to be common with Jeremy's so she went out to catch up to him.  Erica and Vegas had slowed down so weren't riding with Rachel and Chanses any more.

I took care of Stirgess and then went back to see everyone else finish.

At Cleo's last vet check at mile 85 she passed her vet check and Jeremy Rider Optioned.  He felt like she was not feeling like herself and it was better to save it for another day.

Chanses finished 10th and looked super.  Vegas finished a while later and Erica was all smiles.  It was the pairs first 2*.  All in all 5 of 7 finishing isn't too shabby, it's just a drag to prepare all the beasts and then not finish yourself!!  Oh well, horses.

We will be at the Greenway Getaway with the two rookies, Dust and Erebus for their first 50's. 

We sold Bailey last week to Barbara Hershberger.  They will make a great pair.

See you all soon, and Merry Christmas,
Heather

Well the busy week of prep is coming to a close.  Rachel Shackelford, now Rachel Lain, and her husband Brett arrived on Monday.  We have been busy getting all the horses ready, trailer loaded, 7 horses booted, tack organized, etc. 

Last week the Olson's got here and their new house had a paperwork issue to handle so they parked it here and kept us company in the meantime.  It was super fun to visit with them and see their 8 horses they brought with them.  It has been busy for all.  They have been fencing and getting a new house ready this week in addition to getting ready for the race, I remember doing that last year!

It is raining but the race is calling for 79 degrees and I have no idea how humid it might get, hopefully it won't be like two days ago when it was 80 degrees and 82% humidity at 4PM!!!

We are taking 7 horses from our place.  Dust and Erebus will do the LD with Rebecca Silva and Elaine Lemieux on board.  Nixon and Sarah Schick will do the FEI 1*.  Vegas and Erica DeVoti, Chanses and Rachel, Stirgess and myself will do the FEI 2*.  Cleo (the one who crashed off the edge of the Tevis trail and cut her foot so badly) and Jeremy will do the 3*.

Luckily the race is only 15 min away from our house.  Today all of the missing people from our group arrive.  Lynn and Mark Ashby are driving in from Delaware, Erica and Mark DeVoti are flying in from CO, Sarah Schick is driving down from VA and Skip Lightfoot is flying in from CA.  So basically it's party time:) 

I will keep you posted.
Heather

Ok, so I really dropped the ball of the Florida trip, we obviously made it some time ago.

We had an uneventful drive other than a few tire issues.  The first day of our drive we stopped at Sandy's farm in Oklahoma, it is an awesome place and Sandy is a gracious host.  On the second day we stopped in KY and traded out our Dodge for a Freightliner.  That truck can HAUL!! 

The ponies made it to Florida on the third day without any issues.  We arrived at our farm about 2 am and we were so happy to get all the horses settled and then going into our house to hit the pillow...so we thought.  As soon as I opened our front door the overwhelming smell of mouse came and hit me full force.  Our house had unwanted guests!  The rodents had had a great time with our microwave popcorn supply in our pantry. 

We decided to stay in the trailer for another night.  First thing the next day we called a professional carpet cleaning company and they came right out to handle the carpets.  We also went to Tractor Supply to get mouse traps.  In the first week we caught around 15 mice.

Since the day we arrived we have been getting everything organized and I think we finally have a handle on the property once again.  All 11 of the horses here right now are doing great.  We have our 8, Rebecca's horse Sid, Erica's horse Vegas and Linda's horse Charkhal.

We have been having fun with Linda's horse as he is a breed that we have been interested in looking into and training.  He is an Akhal Teke Mustang cross.  He is about 15.3 and is a smokey, metallic buckskin.  He is a very cool dude, Linda is going to have a lot of fun on him.

The weather has been super.  The first two weeks we had thunder storms almost each afternoon and now for the last week it has been a little cooler and no rain.  The horses are all adjusting to the heat and humidity.  I have been doing a lot of trace clipping and mane pulling.

We had a really fun BB-Q at Liesanne's (SP?) house with Emilio, Amy, her husband Peter and their son.  We also enjoyed a day at the beach and going in the ocean, it was like bath water and it was so clear!!

Jeremy will be doing a glue on boot demo this weekend at the SEDRA distance clinic.

On the weekend of Nov 3-4 we will be going to our first CTR at the Boggy Creek Ride.  I have been asked to help judge the event and Jeremy will do the distance only division as I am a judge.  It should be very fun and we will probably even learn something.

Well we hope to see some of you down here soon, don't let us hog all the good weather and great riding!!

On Tuesday Jeremy and I loaded up the two horses from CA that we were going to haul to CO, to pick up our remaining 6 that the Ford's had so generously cared for all summer.  (We did leave 3 in CA, Liger, Smitty and Mo.  Skip and his daughter will ride Mo and Smitty this winter.)

We put our new 6 yr old Anglo gelding Erebus (named after a volcano in Antarctica) , and our new 6 yr old Arab gelding Gold Dust Rising aka Dust into the trailer around noon. 

We had just had our truck in the shop while we were in England to take care of a problem that we had on our way from CO to Tevis, and the truck got some new tires and the trailer had gotten new tires and rims so all should be good and things should run smoothly...we made it 3 hours!!

Just past Auburn the truck started to have the same problem that had just been "fixed".  It would just lose power and we would be climbing at a mighty 25 mph on a not too steep climb. Considering that we had traveled 3 whole hours of the 39 hour drive it seemed like we should call our friends Rachel Shackelford and Brett Lain.  They live in Newcastle, near Auburn and Brett is an awesome mechanic with his own shop.

We turned around and drove back to their house and spent the night, horses and all.  That night we had sushi and had a great time hanging out.  We also hung out with Peanut the potbelly pig.  She is pretty cute and runs to you when you call her!

The next day I went with Rachel while she gave a lesson and Jeremy and Brett went to the shop to work on the truck. They were pretty sure they had it nailed.  There was some sort of valve that when your truck has too much pressure (? not a truck person?) it breaks so that your engine doesn't blow.

After the truck repair all four of us with our three dogs went to the American River for a swim.  Jeremy and Brett ran from the Tevis finish line and Rachel and I drove down to No Hands Bridge and hiked down.  All of the dogs and Brett and Jeremy swam.  It was too cold for the girls:)

That evening we went and had Mongolian BB-Q.  Then we hooked up the truck and took off around 8 pm Weds night.  The rest of the drive went well with the exception of the AC stopped working about the time we got to Moab.  AHHH!!!  Love this truck.

We arrived in Durango, CO about 2 pm and turned the horses out with our other guys.  So good to be back in Durango!  The aspens are all changing colors to reds and yellows.  So beautiful. 

On Thursday evening we had a relaxing dinner with Lisa and Garrett and shared some laughs.  It was fun.

Friday we took both trucks (we left the second rig in CO, so now there were two:)  to get an oil change.  Then Jeremy went bike riding with Garrett.  I went and ran errands that needed to be done before pushing off on Mon morning.  After the errands and bike ride Jeremy and I met up and had lunch in Durango at a cute place.

Sat. we woke up and went up to the mountain trails.  Lise went mtn bike riding, Garrett and Jeremy went running and I went for a hike.  So awesome, all of the scenery is amazing.  On our drive back, Jeremy climbed up into an apple tree that was on the side of the road and shook the tree to get the highest apples to fall off to give to the horses.  It rained apples and we scooped them up.

That afternoon we trimmed our herd and then went to dinner with the Ford family.  It was really enjoyable as usual.  We were at a rooftop restaurant and the weather was perfect.

Today, Sunday we woke up at 6:45 to go for a ride up in the high country to find more aspens.  I rode Honor and Jeremy rode Chanses.  Lisa rode Clunk and Garrett rode Derby.  Over all it was super fun, a few wild moments on the narrow trail but a great time in all. 

After the ride I drove to the Durango airport to pick up our friend Rebecca Silva.  She was flying in to help us make the trek to FL, soo cool.  She will also be living at our place thru the winter helping us ride.

On our way home from the airport we stopped at the grocery store to get driving food so we don't have to do fast food.  Then when we got back Jeremy had already loaded up everything!  He is the BEST!!

Tomorrow we will wake at 3 am and take off headed East.  Maybe we will see you in FL!

Heather

On Thursday evening we had the opening ceremonies.  They were awesome as expected.  All of the athletes were invited into a big party.  There were appetizers and drinks and socializing and then we were all put behind the scenes and organized by countries. 

The ceremonies were after dark.  It was a small disappointment that not all of the people could be in the seats to watch as there was not enough room.  Most of our crew were outside on the grass watching large screens instead of live performances. 

All the countries were announced as we marched in with our flag.  Then we all sat down and watched the show.  It was a variety of dancers, light shows, mounted performances and fireworks, lots of fireworks!  Very fun. We had an after party at the barn.  It was pretty fun, then headed off to bed. 

When we got back to the house my whole family had arrived!  My Mom, Dad, Hannah, Jonathan and Dustin.   Super awesome.

Friday, Jeremy and I went to the barn very early to get a ride in before the day got busy.  At 10:30 our truck arrived to haul the horses over to the venue.  It was decided that we would take 6 horses over, due to how the rules were written this time as far as alternates were concerned.  Nicki, John, Val, Jeremy, Meg and I loaded up our ponies and made the 15 min drive to the venue.  Uneventful.

We hand grazed the horses for a long while and then put them in and took care of things.  4:22 was our countries vet in time and we marched over in uniform and vetted.  All but Nicki's horse, Not Tonight, vetted in.  It was very disappointing for everyone.

After that we weighed in and things were officially started.  Later that day Emmett told us that John, Val, Jeremy and I would make up the team.

When all was done at the barn we headed home and my sister and mom cooked pizza and we ate and went to sleep.

Sat we woke up and left the house at 5 am.  Wendy had fed for us early that morning and we didn't start until 7 am.  The horses were eating and relaxed when we got to the barn.  The whole crew team met at the old barn, not at the race, at 6 am to set out to their points before the traffic started.

Marvel and Kutt were saddled at 6:15 and we started warming up.  Both seemed relaxed.  We headed over towards the start after a while and joined the masses in warm ups. 

At 7 am the announcer announced the start and we were off!!  The start was a long shoot with hundreds of cheering fans lining both sides.  The horses shot down the stretch through the cheers.  Marvel lost Kutt immediately as Kutt was going to be riding faster.  Marvel was terrified.  He had never had so many fast horses near him in a crowd combined with all the cheering.  Whenever a horse near him did anything abruptly he would leap and bolt forward.  After about a half a mile he settled into the idea of just galloping along.

The first loop had a number of riderless horses.  I saw two fall down myself.  There was a lot of grass and horses were slipping or tripping I guess.  My new model Easyboot Glue ons were SUPER secure in the grass!  I was very happy with this.  In the entire 100/160 Marvel slipped 1 time.  Very cool.

We passed through a couple of crew points and it was great seeing so many American faces handing bottles to me.

When we arrived at the first vet check I was surprised to see Kutt there.  He was totally freaked out, he was shaking and calling out to all the horses.  He is so quiet all the time that this was super weird.  His normal 1.5 min recovery had taken over 15 mins and he wasn't coming down until he saw Marvel.  I stayed by Kutt until he came down.  We can only figure that it may have been the PA system.  Kutt hasn't been around one since he was on the track.  He was also super wired each time leaving the checks and wanted to bolt out each and every time.  Normally he is so rational but again the PA was there announcing.

Loops two and three Jeremy and I rode together.  After loop three I had a recheck for a hind end.  From this point on I rode carefully and each loop he was looked at twice from then on.

The team was doing well.  Val was having some physical pain from her first loop where her horse decided to spook and leave her but she was tough as nails and stuck it out for the team. 

At the last vet check Heraldic vetted out for lameness.  That left only the 3 of us to make it happen for a team placing.  I was skeptical as Marvel had a questionable hind end. 

On the last loop after I left the last crew point the sky opened up and it really poured.  The rain was torrential and the thunder and lightening were simultaneous.  It was getting hairy for sure, the wind had picked up and the branches were falling around me.  The trail turned into a river and things got sloppy.

About a mile and a half from the finish line a quad came around to inform me that the race had been cancelled and that I could stop.  I looked at the guy and asked where I would go if I "stopped?".  Then I told him that I am almost done and that I would keep going.  I didn't slow down for this conversation.  The two Malaysian riders I was with pulled up and and stood there.  I called back to them to keep coming and then stopped worrying about them and continued.

At the finish our USA team was there to greet me.  It was cool.  I did get to finish, they let everyone stop after whatever loop they were on and since I was on my last one I vetted and finished.

In the end Meg was 11th, Val was 20 with Jeremy who was 21 and I think I was 36 or so.  Our team placed 4th.

It is kind of funny that the last two World Championships the alternate rider who was added the day before the race performed best in both cases...

On Saturday night we had a pizza party at the old barn with the whole USA group, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to the awards.  Sunday was a packing day and then there were buyers wanting to see some of the horses.  It ended up being a busy day. 

In the end Marvel belongs to a Sheik and will be in Dubai and Kutt, Pete and Reggie were sold to Sheik Mohammed and Juma will be training them.  It was hard as always saying good bye to our close equine friends but I know both trainers will handle them well and take really top notch care of them.

Heather

During picture day: A Kutt Above with Jeremy and Riverwatch and I.

Time has been flying by and I have been away from the WiFi zone. 

On Tuesday we did our morning ritual of trot outs and then it was picture time!! The whole team got a lot of pics as a group, with horses, without horses with crew, etc.  It was painless.

I forgot to mention that we picked up Maddy on Monday from the Thetford train station.  When we picked her up the car was full so she and her suitcase sat in the trunk.  Nothing like a warm welcome!!

After pictures we decided to go sight seeing in Thetford and have tea.  It was fun, Thetford is a small quaint town.  We found a good place called the Bell Inn.  Ironically none of us had tea!!  We had coffees and food but no tea.  Oh well.

I clipped our horses and Marvel has a heart on his butt and Kutt has his lightening bolts.  I needed a shower after all that hair so  after that we headed home.

Since we have been here our horses have discovered that they LOVE oranges, skin and all.  We have been treating them with a few a day.

There is also a great fundraising effort going on here.  It all started with a bathtub pic of John Crandall due to not enough hot water at his hotel...  Now there has been a full photo shoot of "The Men Of London" and there are at least 12 pics with totally revealing shots for a WEC calendar!!  All the models are part of the USA team.  It has been too funny.

Tuesday evening Skip, Karl, Jeremy and I went into Thetford for dinner.  Maddy and Holly stayed in and made pizza.  The Bell Inn was good for lunch, but then we had dinner there too.  We met Tony Bennedetti there and had a fun meal. 

Wednesday, morning trot outs and then we went for a brief ride.  The horses felt too good and my sister got some crazy pics of us galloping around the countryside.  After the ride we practiced bottle hand offs, I almost didn't survive and then trotted out for the vets again then the horses had the rest of the day to veg out.

We headed over to the venue to check out the vet gate.  This year the horses will wear a small device so that your arrival time and recovery time will be paperless.  As long as the system doesn't go down it will be super efficient.  We were looking at the distances from the in gate to the P&R time area.  Our USA crew bay is closest to the P&R area so there was discussion as to what the best approach would be as far as how to come in.  Good times.

Tim arrived at the train station today, only 7 more of our crew left to  arrive.

Wednesday night we went to dinner with our friends, Hillorie and Abdullah.  Once again, the Bell Inn!  We need to branch out, kind of stuck in a rutt.

Thursday we have been non stop busy, sorry this blog is a bit concise.  Morning trot outs, Crew packing, Rider meetings one on one with Dwight and Emmett to find out what our speeds will be for race day.  Then back to the venue for lunch and seeing what the vendors had to offer. 

We dropped Tim and Jeremy off at the house on the way back and Holly and I had tea and then drove to the barn to get WiFi to write this:) 

Tonight is opening ceremonies.  We have a USA after party at the barn planned so it should be a fun night. 

Team USA is Golden.

Heather

Sunday has been a nice quiet day.  We got to the barn around 8 am.  Trot outs as usual, all the ponies looked good.  After that Marvel went on the walker for an hour and then Nicki and I headed out towards the gallop track that we have nearby.  Nellie and Marvel moved along nicely.  When we got to the track, after riding by the castle and beautiful pond with tons of ducks, we galloped once around together and then I stopped as that was all I needed to do and Nicki and Nellie went for a longer ride. 

I rode back to the barn alone while Nicki finished her laps.  Marvel felt spectacular.  He had on his new Easyboot Glue Ons with the awesome new pattern for break over.  He loves them!!!

After our ride we bathed Marvel and turned him out.  Right after that we went and viewed crew points with Skip.  The parking was pretty limited with the idea of just how many crew cars there will be on race day.  Luckily I won't be parking cars:)

We then went into Thetford and had lunch with our friend Hillorie Bachmann.  It was alright but not he best so far as far as food is concerned.  Still very fun though.

When we finished up with that we went back to the barn and put Kutt's race boots on.  He is also wearing the break over Glue ons.  When we finished that up we turned both horses out.

That night we had dinner at the house.  Karl, Jeremy, Holly,  Skip and I.  It was really relaxing.

Monday morning Trot outs went well.  All the horses are getting really dialed in for race day, they look like they are ready to fly!  After the trot we put our guys on the walker and had our morning meeting.  Immediately after this we saddled up and headed over to the track.  Jeremy and I went on a light ride.  It was fun.

When we were done with our barn chores we headed off to New Market.  We wanted to look around and get a girth for Marvel.  Newmarket is a neat place, it is like our Kentucky as far as Throroughbred's go.  Race horses everywhere. 

After we returned from Newmarket we had individual rider meetings with Dwight and Emmett.  Then headed back to our house to rest.  Our day ended with the best meal yet at the Craquer Restaurant.  Then off to bed.  The days are starting to fly by...

 

The castle above is the one we ride by on the race and you can see it from one of the crew points.

Today we got to the barn for our morning cold trot outs and all the horses were examined. More people have arrived so the group is growing. 

After trot outs we barefooted Marvel and then put he and Kutt on the walker.  There was a group meeting and then we did chores like cleaning stalls etc.  We are also all taking shifts now watching the barn, we had the 10-12 slot.  I stayed and watched the barn while Jeremy went for a run.  Holly went with a group of crew to see the crew points. 

When Jeremy returned we glued on Marvel's race boots.  They are the new awesome Easyboot Glue On pattern with the great break over.  He seemed happy with his cool new kicks on. 

We went to the cottage to have lunch and then hung out for a bit.  We needed to be back to the barn by 4pm for our afternoon trot outs.  As Holly and I hung out on the couch I fell asleep.  We woke up and headed back to the barn around 3:15.  All seven horses were trotted at 4. 

The whole group of people, crew, riders and staff, for the USA contingent are really supportive, helpful and amazing this year!  I have never seen a more cohesive group involved in one of these International events.  I credit this largely to Emmett's leadership skills and the effort he has put into this to make everyone comfortable not only physically but mentally as well. 

After the trot outs we spent some time at the barn.  Holly went for a run.  Skip and Karl also arrived today so things should get more lively;)

We are wrapping up at the barn and we will be headed to the cottage and then to the White Horse Inn for dinner.  So far Team USA is looking "Golden"!

Heather

Above is a castle on loop one of the trail and we have also been riding past it in training.

Becky, Judith and I flew out of LAX on Tuesday, the 14th.  It was very uneventful.  Earlier in the day I got the best news, our horses had arrived at the barn in England a day sooner than scheduled.  Jeremy and the horses flew to Luxemburg and instead of staying all day Tuesday and spending the night to drive on Wed, they just landed and drove.

We arrived on the 15th around noon at the Heathrow airport.  My sister, Holly, landed before us so she was there waiting for us.  After getting our luggage we headed for the rental car office.  Judith saved me big time when she overheard that I was about to pay for the rental insurance.  She asked me if my credit card company covers that for me.  I had not ever checked into this or known about this feature, it turns out that I did have coverage thru my AMEX!  That saved me 35 pounds a day, the current exchange is 1.558 USD to 1 pound.  That would have been pricey!

After our keys were given to us we took our lives in our sleep deprived hands and got into our cars where the driver sits on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road and pulled out of the airport onto real roads...  Holly drove:)  Becky also drove, the other car.  We all decided before hand that we would caravan and that if we saw a Starbucks we would all stop.  We had no way to call each other so we planned ahead.

After a minute we were separated.  Holly and I had directions to our cottage, but not to the barn. Oh well, we would get the cottage and then have a way to get to the barn later.  We drove a ways and then saw that we had missed our turn so we drove to the next exit (a long ways) and went around a round about only to realize we had exited it too soon and so we were now headed the same way as we had just been going! We kept driving to the next exit and got looped around a few times and then figured out where we needed to go to back track to our road we had missed.  In the meantime we saw a Starbucks so we decided to pull off.  As we ordered our drinks who should we see?  Becky and Judith!!  Too crazy, lucky!  We had been going the wrong way to get to the cottage but the right way to get to the barn.  After our lunch break we had no problem following Becky and Judith.

We arrived at the barn around 5:30 pm.  It was good to see familiar faces after a 2.5 hour road trip.  The horses looked happy.  Scott Hie was working on our two guys getting them tuned up.  Scott is a super talented chiropractor and beyond!  The horses love him.  He also fixed Jeremy's knee that had been bothering him since his Tevis crash, now Jeremy can go running without worrying about his knee any more.

The barn is really great and there are huge grass turnouts and a walker for our use as well.  We also have direct access to the course that we will race on, we are on the pink loop which is loop 1.

After tending to the horses we all headed to the White Horse, a local pub.  There were about 12 of us and we all had a fun dinner together.  I had fish and chips so it would be official that we were really in the UK.  As soon as we were done we found our way to our cottage.  It is sooo super cute.  The cottage is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a big kitchen and a living room. I slept in and out through the night.

At 8:15 am on Thursday we were at the barn trotting out all of the horses for Emmett.  The horses here all look amazing.  Such a great group. After trot outs we had a team meeting then Jeremy, Holly and I took care of cleaning our stalls, feeding the horses and putting them on the walker.  

In the early afternoon Jeremy and I rode for about 6 miles.  We were trying to find our way to a pig farm to show the horses because there are a lot of sections of the race where you pass them.  We failed.  Darn.

After the ride we washed the horses and put them in the turn out.  They looked happy. That night we all went to a pub called Angels.  As we sat down to eat Wendy noticed something going on across the street, it looked like a sale of some kind. 

For dinner I ordered an omelette.   The waitress asked if I wanted potatoes and vegetables with it.  I asked her if I could have toast, she looked at me blankly so I said, bread?  She asked me if I was serious, if I really wanted bread and potatoes.  I told her yes.  After ordering our food Wendy asked me to come with her to check out the sale.  It turned out to be a motorcycle party that was getting set up for the next day.

We looked at the stuff that was for sale and then Wendy went around and rounded up some bikers to take a picture with and then got them to bring out more bikes!!  Too funny.  We got our pictures though!  Wish I had one to show you.

After that we went back and had our dinner, there were 16 of us now.  Very lively group, the group is growing by the day.  When the waitress served me she said "here are your bread and potatoes"  then she paused and said "weird". 

We got out of dinner around 9:45.  We were so ready for bed.

Today we got to the barn just before 8.  The trot outs began and by 8:15 everyone had been trotted. Dwight was there to inspect with Emmett, he had arrived the night before.  After the trot outs there was a local vet that came to pull blood so that a full panel could be run on everyone to see how the horses were doing.  Later in the afternoon we found out our two guys were fine on the results.

Jeremy, Holly and I went over to the venue to see the start and go for a run.  It is looking great over at the venue.  We ran about 30 mins and then headed back to the barn. It was around 10:30 when we saddled up to head over to a nice gallop track that we have access to.  Marvel and Kutt had a great ride and worked effortlessly.  It was really fun.  They did see sheep today and neither of them cared.  I hope they feel the same about the pigs.

As we rode to and from the track we admired the pheasants and ducks that are abundant on the property and we also checked out the castle, very awesome.  There is also some breed of miniature deer that is around, looks almost like a goat/deer/dog.  Kind of cute.

After our ride we bathed our guys and did our "warm" trot outs.  We are doing two a day, a cold one, fresh from the night in the stall and a warm one in the afternoon, after some work.  They looked great.  Back to the turn out.

Jeremy, Holly and I headed to the cottage for lunch and then went exploring.  We drove into Thetford to get some crew buckets, called "Water Butts", and looked in every pet store we saw, I really wanted to see a hedgehog, no luck so far... I did see a cute squirrel, rat looking thing.  Then by the time we reached Thetford to walk around it was just past 5 pm and everything had just closed, the town closes up at 5 on the dot.  We decided we would come back on Saturday as we were not going to ride. 

We drove back to the barn and brought the horses in from the turn out.  The company, Theraplate, who makes our vibrating plate for our horses had delivered a Theraplate for the team to use.  We put both Marvel and Kutt on for 20 mins a piece.  While they were on Jeremy and I adjusted our new LAS custom USA helmets.  They look sooo cool, sort of like Speed Racer.

We wrapped up at the barn and now we are sitting in our rental car all using our gadgets to use the WiFi outside of the barn office.  Tomorrow Skip and Karl get here.  We have a relaxing night at home tonight.  I think I will sleep all the way through the nite tonight.

Heather