Fences...Fences...Fences!

Before you read this post, let me dutifully warn you that it may be perceived along the lines of, "Please sit down... I have 1,000 baby pictures you're going to love!"  Or, "Would you like to see the pictures from our family vacation?  We took 30,000!"  You have been warned ... here come the FENCE photos! Yep, in every photo - posts and rails.  They're like a dream come true to me!  "Fencing Phase 1" was completed yesterday by Robert and his crew, All About Fence.  They did an absolutely beautiful job, and pretty much, I LOVE MY FENCES!!!  After the wood dries out a bit, we'll be staining them dark - it's not too early to volunteer for the painting party! I promise pizza and beer, and pretty much anything else you want!

Before there could be a fence, there had to be posts!

And then, voila, there was a fence! And it has a gate!

Oh look, another fence!  It has 4 boards too!

OOOHHH... Double fence! Anyone fancy a hack around the fields??

This is "the cow fence" - I hope the cows next door don't have an appetite for wood!

The driveway - with a fence!

Oh look, my mom with a fence!

AH HA!  Horses in a fence!  Katchi & Mi came to visit during our Cinco de Mayo party - they were  begrudgingly confined to the one finished fence at the time - the future sacrifice area - not so big... and all that lovely grass in the distance!  Total horse abuse.

Rolex 2013

Sharon & me & Bruce

Yes, I know, Rolex was an entire month ago!  Where does the time go?!  But some of these pictures are just too fun not to post for everyone to have a good laugh over!!  This was my 3rd trip to Rolex, and my mom's 2nd.  This time she came in with a battle plan.  Credit card companies notified - check.  Savings account money available - check.  Shopping list in full detail - check. Dressage schedule carefully assessed to precisely balance the right amount of shopping and dressage - check.  Cash for Funny Business drinks - lots of Funny Business - check.  For several months leading up to Rolex, we had quite a debate about whether we would take the Camry, the truck, the truck with a flatbed... it even got so bad that I had to tell friends they couldn't ride with us because we did not expect to have room for them, one allotted small suitcase, AND OUR SHOPPING!!!!  This is how seriously we took Rolex this year.  

Rolex 2013 was especially fun because 4 wonderful friends and students came along as Rolex newbies!  We tried to explain to them just how good it would be.  Now they have seen the light.  We finally caved and let Sharon have a spot in the truck, and she dutifully packed light and brought travel games and supplies to make Sangria.  She earned her seat.  Kerry flew to Kentucky to meet us Thursday night - while she missed 10 hours of good shopping, she also spared herself the trauma of 39 degree windchill during Wednesday's jog.  I still think we got the better deal.  And Debi and Patrick ended up with dressage seats right next to us on Thursday - not planned and not purchased together!  What does that tell you about how many people actually bought Rolex Thursday dressage tickets the first week they were on sale???  And Amanda (a former student now in Tennessee - not a Rolex newbie) also met up with us on Friday.  What a fun group we had!

While my mom was on a tractor shopping mission, the other girls and I entertained ourselves by pretty much playing like star struck teenagers backstage at a rock concert!  And the funny thing is - I know all these "rockstars" that we spent 4 days snapping ridiculous pictures with like we'd never met any of them - and like none of them had ever yelled at me in a lesson!  Yes, we enjoyed the Man of War drinks.  A lot.

(Me + Man of War) + (Mom + Funny Business) = Good Times.

Mom & Mower!

Sharon with Boydo!

I have seriously considered changing my FaceBook profile picture.  Boyd is one cute Aussie.

Me & Mom - Dressaging it up!

Me & Kerry posing with Phillip Dutton - there was almost a brawl  to get to him when the line turned into chaos.  Someone may have pushed a child or two, but we got our books signed AND a picture!  Jeeeeezzzzuss. 

And what luck - we found Jimmy signed his book too!

WOO HOO EVENTING NATION!  We got EN CUPS!

Yes, folks - EN sponsored mimosas and cookie cake for breakfast.  Best cross country Saturday ever!

Mom meeting the BIG MAN... HENNY!

Good Boy Henny!

Golightly Sport Horse...s!

With much excitement, I am back with big news!!  For several years, ever since selling my beloved baby OTTB Stealer, it's been a bit of a joke that Golightly Sport Horses has been THE Golightly Sport Horse -- aka Katchi!  It's been a competition string of one. Of course, the string also includes my lovely students and their awesome horses, but riding vicariously isn't much riding at all!  So, without further adieu, I am thrilled to announce the doubling of my competition string size and the transformation, again, to Golightly Sport HORSES!!!  With Katchi's untimely retirement from eventing and rerouting to a dressage career, I was left in the sandbox without escape!  So I've been keeping my eyes open, casually, for a new eventing partner.  I've tried a few horses over the past few months - everything from greenbean babies right off the track to Irish imports with solid competition records.  It's been painfully hard to let go of the "run and jump" partnership I have with Katchi in search of a new partner - and deciding what exactly I was looking for was way harder than I expected!  And then the guilt kicked in.  How could I tell Katchi he'd been replaced?  Heartbreaking.

I looked here and looked there.  Not really expecting to find the one for some time.  I talked with Phillip and Silva and kept looking - I talked with my vet, farrier, mom, and friends! And I kept looking.    And, then one day, a horse listed online caught my eye ... only problem was he was snowbound and furry in Michigan! But we got through the snow and fur, and so Katchi now has a brother - just a few weeks younger, and what do you know... he's a bay (he had to be a bay - 30 years of riding - always a bay!).  Tall, dark, and handsome!  

Dusty Dazing

2001 TB bay gelding (Texas)

Jockey Club tatoo, but unraced.

Sire: Stephene Mon Amour

Dam: Amber Dust by Dust Commander

As the new pony has been here a few weeks and we're getting to know him, we've been working madly on coming up with a new barn name for him (SORRY MICHELLE!) - and the "no name horse" finally has a name!  Mi.  Pronounced "my" - for "the Michigan horse" and also for Mi Taylor, the race trainer in National Velvet.  It seems to suit him quite well, and he's already learning that his new name = lots of treats.  So, he seems to be adjusting through his identity crisis as well as can be expected for any "no name horse!"

It will take a few weeks to get Mi running full speed and me able to hang on, but look for us out and about very soon!

New horse checking out his new home at Baywood.

Settling into quarantine before joining his brother in the big barn.

Mi in bling!  Fancy halter and bell boots!
Sorry Jimmy - this horse is not a bling-free zone!