So I’m not actually sure how much of an actually recap this is going to be. My brain is still fried from Fair Hill almost a week later but I do have a lot of media to post. Most of it I haven’t even started sorting through. Hopefully over the next week or so I’ll post some of it.

Tayler Stewart and Ideal Contini — I’m in love with this horse, especially after watching the pair’s stadium round. 

Overall, it was a great year at FHI and the first year I managed to attend the event in its entirety (though Sunday morning I needed to drag myself out of bed and if I didn’t have my volunteer shift, I’m not sure if I’d have gotten there for the 2* or 3* stadium–I’m glad I did!).

Grace Fulton and Wild Orange

High level takeaways (I can’t seem to handle more than this):

• The weather was less than ideal and I was  NOT adequately prepared and purchased more clothing than necessary including first a grey cowl because I was freezing despite wearing what I though were enough layers and a blue FHI jacket that Michele talked me into (not really but it’s fun to blame her for all purchases like those boots this summer…). I really needed gloves, but I was too lazy to drive home and get gloves and refused to buy any (the only really warm gloves were in the Dubarry booth and I don’t buy nice gloves or I cry when I lose them).
• I lived on the crab soup.

Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan

• I wish I had ventured in to the tea tent before Sunday. OMG the tea was amazing and the volunteer tent had coupons for free tea… I could have used that… every day?
• The cross country course walk with Jennie Brannigan and Tim Bourke was incredibly interesting. Jennie had to leave part way through for YEH awards so we mostly walked the 3* course with Tim (who, by the way, was one of the NICEST people I got to meet and took the time to introduce himself and talk to everyone on the course walk). Media from this  to come. It was a shame he had so much trouble on cross country… I also almost crashed into him before his stadium round. I did NOT hear him almost walk RIGHT INTO HIS PATH as he was approaching fence 1 after resetting the damn Devoucoux fence… Sorry Tim! At least he and Obie went double clear…

Kevin Keane and Sportsfield Candy

• So nice to meet people including Michele, Emma,  Rachael, and others!
• My dog is a traitor… Turns out she decided she will ONLY take french fries from Michele and when my friend Sandra walked away for a phone call, Hermione had a near panic attack… Thanks Hermione, I  love you too.
• Had a nice chat Saturday with Muggle’s rider, Nilson Moreira da Silva. He told us that Muggle was exhausting to ride and hurt his back because he was such an athletic jumper. But Muggle looked exhausted at the end of cross country and barely made it through the last couple fences.

Cornelia Dorr and Louis M (So disappointed that stadium did not go well.  He looked exhausted and she looked tight.)

• Saturday was probably the nicest day weather wise though I think they called for nicer weather on Sunday. Sunday rolled in rainy and freezing with predicted temperatures reaching 75… Yeah. I got there just in time for the CCI 2* Stadium and the wind was blowing and it was drizzling and I was again freezing. Reminded me of Thursday. I managed to survive the 2* before I hunted down tea and realized I couldn’t handle more  crab soup (until next year crab soup). Then in was time for JUMP CREW.

Will Coleman and Off The Record

• Probably the most volunteer shift of mine was jump crew for the CCI 3*. There were 5 of us (include a 10 year old kid who worked HARD) and we got to sit in the middle of the ring surrounded by straw bales and probably had the best view of the course. The bleachers while OK did NOT provide the best view of the course. As jump crew, we had a few jobs: put the jumps back together, re-position poles (bow down) after hard rubs, and STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF THE HORSES (1 near fail was pretty good–sorry Tim!). In the CCI 2*, Buck often would tell the jump crew to adjust stuff so with 3 horses, we were afraid he’d be yelling at us, but thankfully no riders yelled at us to change things. We got off easy. While it was work, it was actually fun. And it was nice being IN the ring. Definitely volunteering for jump crew next year for both the 2* and 3*. Granted,  I somehow missed Boyd Martin though I obviously watched him and just failed to notice it was him. We were all sort of brain dead by that point. At the end we also reported that jump 13 was down when there was no jump 13 so…

Savannah Fulton and Brave New World

• Afterwards we were asked to stay and deconstruct the rings. Pull down the flags, pull the plants, sort the plants, etc. Unlike some shows, the majority of the plants are on loan from neighboring nurseries and are returned afterwards whereas some larger H/J shows (IE: Devon) the flowers are  donated and sold after. The mums were donated and  the boy scouts were going to sell them. Which we didn’t  know. But, the people handling flowers just told those of us helping out if we wanted mums to grab them and hide them. So we each took 4 (of a million), stuck them in our straw hut, and went back to work. When we were leaving and carting our mums to our cars (since we were told we could drive in and then realized we couldn’t bring our cars in since no one had and extra vehicle pass) — thankfully a nice courtesy golf cart rescued us — we saw the boy scout mum sale. Oops.

Tamra Smith and Glock Pullman (So happy for her to get the win on Sunsprite Syrius.  She was so ecstatic after her stadium round! 

Anyway, more musings and media later, but overall it was a fun (and exhausting) 4 days!!

On an unrelated note, I finally opened my trailer and did  NOT get stung by a wasp. I also clipped this idiot…

On an unrelated note, I finally opened my trailer and did  NOT get stung by a wasp. I also clipped this idiot…

He’s lucky he’s cute and seriously easy to clip (though he requires the big clippers for  EVERYTHING… I can’t do anything with my Andis clippers on him… not even his face… which won’t get clipped till spring.)