11:12 PM Thursday July 21st 2011

Double clean crosscountry!!! Jessica and I both had great rides today :) Fast & Clean. The boys both took a little while to recover from the heat and humidity, but the vet box was great and everyone was taken care of 100% of the time. Ice on everyone's legs, lots of walking and on to show jumping tomorrow! The course looks fun, with AMAZING footing that feels like you are floating across it. The heat index got up to 110 today, everyone is struggling with it but we are managing. HM is intense as usual, but very thorough and fair. Our team is currently in 3rd! Jessica's amazing dressage score of 26.4 (highest of the eventing competition) helped us out big time! Hopefully clean rounds tomorrow will move us up!

Things have been really busy, but we've had a chance to watch a few other disciplines and check out the park. Everything is sooo cool, we'll try to get as many pics up as possible but internet issues are making that hard so this is all we can put up right now.

10:43 Tuesday July, 19th 2011
Sorry for not getting more posts up! Things have been a little crazy here, last night we were just too tired, busy and stressed to do any blogging. We got all settled in, met our team and set up our tack room. The weather continues to be HOT and HUMID, one pony clubber actually fainted from heat stroke today during opening ceremonies. The weather report says its only going to get hotter, possibly up to 110 !! Flash flood warnings, thunder/lightning storms and even a little tornado scare have been daily ordeals.

We had a scare with Wes, he had some swelling in his right hind pastern and was limping slightly when we arrived yesterday. Passing jogs and being sound to compete was a big concern, but after a grand total of 5 vets, over 20 lbs of ice and an awesome team we got the swelling down and he was feeling good and jogged out great! Icing, walking, massaging and repeat, every hour all day got the job done. He went to bed with a poultice wrap on with the hope of keeping swelling down and keeping him comfortable and ready to compete.

Along with jogs, we had competitor briefings and opening ceremonies in the Rolex stadium which was really cool. There were reining and polo exhibitions and TONS of competitors. There are over 1,100 total pony club competitors at the park this week!

Kentucky is AMAZING! There are beautiful farms everywhere you go, and the horse park is fabulous! Not only is it HUGE, but stunning from one end to the other. There are miles of perfect white fencing and green grass.

The real work starts tomorrow, we are up at 5 am with barns opening at 6 and formals soon after so it is past our bed times! We'll keep you posted!

9:43 PM Saturday July 16 2011

The fun continues :P    We spent the day exploring Nashville, both of us being country music freaks it was heaven!! We started out with the Country Music Hall of Fame and did some shopping in the gift shop then went down the Broadway strip and checked out all the bars, live music pouring out 24/7. Lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritavillewas entirely too much fun, live music and FRIED PICKLES totally sealed the deal!! We wanted to see it at night with all the signs lit up but we had hungry ponies waiting, who turned out to be buttheads that had to be chased around the field just so we could bring them up for dinner! We have been totally blown away by the houses and farms we've seen just driving around, everything is big, brick and beautiful! The heat and bugs are still a pain but we are acclimating and so are the boys, we've been in contact with our team captain and plans for next week seem to be coming together!

2:53 PM Friday July 15th 2011

We made it to Tennessee! Chuck, Jessica & I (with the ponies of course) arrived LATE last night, settled the ponies in with their dinner and hit the hay.

Yesterday's drive was a fiasco! Due to flooding in Iowa we had to detour a couple hundred miles around I-29 but after a few hours and some interesting conversations about navigating we got back on track for Westmoreland. So far the only problems we've run into are avoiding floods and Brav losing a shoe, but nothing major. It has been in the 90's everyday but luckily both Brav & Wes have been drinking well and seem to be handling it okay.
We are staying with old pony club friends (the Bakers) in Westmoreland TN. Their place is awesome! This morning we walked the horses down to a HUGE grassy field that they seemed to love. Even in the 90 degree heat they both took off galloping to the other end, clearly that means they need to go out and do some conditioning tomorrow!  

11:00 PM Wednesday July 13th 2011

Getting closer! The last two days of driving have gone smoothly (for the most part). We made it through lightning storms in montana, never ending corn fields in South Dakota,  flooding in Iowa, and construction everywhere! Tonight we are staying at Seven Wonders Farm in Sioux City which is home to some extremely cute new foals! Jess & I had our first encounter with lightning bugs tonight... certifiably trippy. Wes and Brav are troopers and holding up through the long days in the trailer. We are a little worried about our route tomorrow as it looks like there is some severe flooding on I-29. Luckily we have Chuck with us, who, in trusty dad fashion has taken care of us every step of the way. My computer doesnt have a card reader so pics will have to wait until tomorrow night. 5 am comes very early so its our bed time! More updates soon :)