GDCTA Eventing Camp: Second Day

Sorry again life is getting in the way of blogging. I leave again on Saturday for a work trip to DC so trying to cram everything in I can before heading out again. Sigh.

My hotel turned out to be about 25 minutes away (EVERYTHING IS FAR AWAY AT CHATT) but after the first confusing drive it started to make more sense to me. My hotel had some bad reviews online but I am happy to say it was fine, comfortable and reasonable. The only thing NOT reasonable was the tiny ass parking lot that every truck in America seemed to be staying at. My first morning heading to Chatt took me 10 minutes to get out of my spot due to a car tractor trailer (loaded with lamborghinis or some such luxury car) was parked literally behind me.

Let me back up a bit (get it!) On Monday night we had a pizza party and then I went and headed to check in. Then I did ride back out to check on Remus and let him graze some more. Finally I headed to my hotel and collapsed.

The next morning I was up early. I was riding at 11 on Tuesday and had time but still after the fiasco of getting my truck out of the hotel parking lot I headed out to feed Remus. (THANK GOODNESS I had unhooked my trailer at Chatt and left it there, I am sure I would never have found parking that lot was so tight every night I was there, hey Hampton Inn in Fairburn. You need to expand a bit. )

Anyhoo, Remus was bright eyed and bushy tailed (and smelling of urine) when I got there, he had had a party overnight and must have had a good time because he reeked. I made a note to myself to go buy more shavings at Tractor Supply then hosed him off, let him graze some more and then took the golf cart down to see what was for breakfast (Yes I rented a golf cart, 110 percent recommend at Chatt that place is MASSIVE).

I cleaned my tack and got ready to get on. I was riding with Waylon Roberts (I knew I had watched him ride before but didn’t know him from Adam but someone said go to the guy who looks like Harry Potter. HA and he does!) and had watched a few of his lessons earlier. He seemed pretty down to earth. Meanwhile I realized I had left my whip home. I didn’t have one and didn’t know anyone yet (that happened later) so didn’t borrow one. Big mistake. Huge.

The four dressage rings were beside each other and I was confused what ring I needed but then someone was smart enough to point out to look for Waylon (AKA Harry Potter) and you will know you are in the right ring. Duh. LOL

We ambled in there (after Remus grew two hands when he saw the cross country course down the hill) and went over to introduce ourselves. We had been told to pick one or two things to work on before we got in so I stated obviously, we need a forward button. OH And I forgot my whip. Waylon laughed and was like let’s see you trot. I was already wheezing (cough is still here and my allergies were bad) so had to rest and Waylon gave me tasks to do at the walk and trot to get Remus moving forward. They are as follows.

1. Get the bend. Look for his inside eye
2. See the eye? FORWARD NOW. Ask once. If no response MAKE HIM. He gets one chance to move forward
3. Once he is forward (more more more) you can relax a bit but don’t let him drop down.

That was it. Simple right? HARD AS F*CK. OMG I have never been so sore in my life. BUT Remus started responding. He also started moving from behind and going on the bit on his own. It was nothing earth shattering but it was amazing that my fat buckskin lazy horse was moving at a nice trot on a circle and not being a piss head. Also not collapsing on the downward transistion. I am tired typing this. I was soaked in sweat when I was done (Literally a half hour lesson KILLED ME). Also my watch was tracking my activity so no wonder I was beat by that evening. CRAZY.

We were done till jumping in the afternoon so I went and untacked Remus and hosed him off and put him in front of his fan for the time being eating hay. I went down to lunch shaky and tired. But this is when I started to meet people. I met people from Georgia behind me (Spot was a lovely gray tbred that Remus bonded with while there but not stupidly). They were all so nice.

And then of course the person beside me with her Connemara cross. And everyone else was so nice too. Just a friendly friendly group of people.

My afternoon lesson was with Waylon again but jumping. I was in a group with two other riders. One was a mom who stole her daughter’s horse to ride in camp (HA), she had a very nice pinto import who was just lovely. I told her to just keep the horse, the daughter can live without a horse. The other person was a young woman who had a very green horse (she boarded at the property next door and hacked over I still cannot fathom boarding so you could hack to Chatt. HEAVEN).

We were all kind of different ends of the spectrum but Waylon worked with me and Veronica first (pinto mare) while Gaylen just got her horse (green horse) used to all the activity. We did some cross rails at first which Remus yawned at and got a bit pissy then Waylon made some gymnastics for us and we worked on stride counts. Let me preface by saying I SUCK SO MUCH at counting strides. Always have.

But Waylon was like you need to shout out your strides to me. The first time I completey forgot what I was doing but the second round Waylon was shouting with me as I got 6 and 7. The pinto mare was doing 5. Waylon told me we should get 6 at both. And by me stopping worrying about going forward and just counting? WE WENT FORWARD and got 6 at both. EACH TIME. It was eye-opening to say the least. WHO KNEW that would work (Okay everyone including me, I just suck. Yes it is me, hi, I’m the problem).

Another thing we worked on was stopping after each line in a straight halt. No allowing Remus to cut corners but instead halting after the jump. I am proud to say after a few wiggly attempts Remus started halting square and perfectly. It was SO MUCH Fun but again I was soaked in sweat and exhausted.

I went back to the barn and got Remus hosed off again and then went to change my clothes as by that time I was disgusting and stunk (almost as bad as Remus did in the morning LOL).

We had a BBQ there Tuesday night with everyone bringing potluck. We all chatted and I met some other people including the person who owns that cute Welsh stallion up on the header photo that Remus fell in love with (don’t blame you boy he was adorable). We had a vet talk before that and while that was interesting I was kind of falling asleep by then honestly. It was a great first day!

Exhausting! The next day we had weather issues coming in and I was to ride with Michael Pollard. Also I rode at 755 am with my dressage lesson. EGADS that was early! More to come!! YES I AM DRAGGING IT OUT! 🙂