Getting Closer

I''m half excited, half completely overwhelmed right now...I have so much on my plate. I've been joking to my coworker who does project management about hiring her to simplify and manage my life for the next few weeks :)

Re: importing a horse. The shipper I'm using seems amazing - they are taking care of all the border paperwork. Still, there are many forms to be signed, papers to be forwarded, people to coordinate. I got an email from customs today, and this part struck me as funny for some reason:

This brings my units of horses to 3. All alive, too. Ginger may be the only one weighing anywhere near 544.32 kilos, tho.

In super good news - if this can all get coordinated for Mon/Tues, pony will be shipped to a barn about 10 minutes from where we'll be showing for the 23rd-25th. I have to work next Friday, but my coach is going to go pick her up and bring her to the show grounds with us. If all goes to plan, I'll zip down to Vancouver and meet her Friday night at the show!

Here's another baby pic of her :)

I waffled a little over whether it was fair to bring her along - she's likely never been anywhere too exciting, and this will be her first long trailer ride. I thought perhaps leaving her at the other barn for the weekend might be less stressful for her, but then reconsidered and am thinking it will be good for her to hang out with Bridget with the weekend. The show is going to be pretty low key, so low key that the stabling is in the permanent 'international' barn, ie no temporary stalls for us and a bit of a homier feel. The shipper's barn will have horses transported in and out and is also a very busy boarding barn as well. I'll also feel better having her closer to keep an eye on how she's adjusting after stage 1 of her big adventure.

Cool rainbow as I was waiting for the ferry home Wednesday night.

As for Ms Bridget...the saddle saga is scheduled to be over soon! My dressage saddle has been MIA since November, but the fitter is planning to meet us the morning of the show to drop it off and tweak it. I said I needed it back before the show..and it looks like we'll be down to the wire, lol.

So many random pics today. Trying to take nice pics of B, but as always, she'd rather just hang out.

As far as riding actual dressage tests goes - I'm feeling completely unprepared. I was supposed to sign up to ride 1-3, but instead scaled back to 1-1 twice on the Saturday, and 1-2 twice on the Sunday. Less to worry about, because I've been hitting the trails and riding with friends far too often lately. I'm actually feeling quite negative about how our rides are going to go :(. I really need to fix that - I'm cool with having a bad day after feeling like we gave it our best, but it would be a shame for the rides to go badly simply because I couldn't shut up my inner Debbie Downer!

"Shut up, Debbie!" Says Bridget. (And yes, IRL, she is yawning, NOT biting my head, lol)

This Sunday,we hook up the trailer and take Bridget to boot camp at EC's for the week. I'm working down there for the week too, so it will be a good chance to fit in some lessons and catch up with the barn crew there. Hopefully, I'll feel a bit more prepared afterwards, too!

I've been 'round penning' on busy nights (in quotes because there is no science or technique - I just make her move and stretch her legs. We are both so lazy right now.)

Finally, I'm taking barn name suggestions for the new girl. Her registered name is Sovanna, seller is calling her Vanna (which G loves!) but I'm worried that knowing me, Vanna --> Banna -->Banana :)
So, if you have an idea, please share...no guarantees I'll change it, but now is the window of opportunity - once she arrives and everyone meets her, her name is set in stone (and I'll potentially be trying not to call her Banana for the next 25 years :)