A Trip to the Homeland: Part 1

Albert (Alpine Gathering)

Some of you may have noticed my absence on here. Some of you may not have. I judge no one. I had been hoping to make it out to Arizona this year to visit my mom and grandma and I got the opportunity to go. A whirlwind of events happened right before I left (grandma's beloved chihuahua, Dot, had to be put to sleep, my mom was basically kidnapped and beaten by her in-the-process-of-being ex husband, potential ex husband died of a heart attack the following morning, mom ended up in hospital, etc). I was itching to get down there and nervous to leave home.

Butts

Blake drove me to our trusty horse trainer friend (Dewey) two hours away and dropped me off. Only 45 minutes passed, and we were on our way to Phoenix with a very pregnant broodmare and two baby race horses in tow. We left at 8:30pm. My legs were causing me a great deal of pain and I could not fall asleep. The world seemed mostly asleep and the hours of darkness were never ending. We were worried that the broodmare would try to foal while traveling, so there was a lot of hustling going on. Going through Ely, Nevada is was 8 degrees. When the sun finally decided to greet us, we were in Wickenburg with temps approaching 84 degrees. I was melting and exhausted.

Dancer on the inside with the blinkers

We soon landed in Phoenix at Deweyland at noonish and I was elated to step out of the truck. The horses all hauled quite well and Redheadlin's husband greeted me and scooted me off to the track. I felt like a dehydrated zombie and looked like one too. We had a few errands to run, but I had fun exploring Turf Paradise and seeing new and old faces in our training barn. I hadn't eaten anything in 18 hours, so Eugene made me try Chino Bandido's, a chinese mexican restaraunt. Then it was back to the track to get Dancer (Knotta Dancer) ready for his race. What a character that lovely gelding is.

Eugene and Dancer

Unfortunately, the barn is approximately a zillion miles from the saddling paddock so it was a long walk for my crippled ass. Our helper never showed up, so I ended up holding Dancer while Eugene saddled him in the paddock. He was a superstar. He dropped way back in the start, but ended up making a big move down the stretch to make it up to fourth place. We cooled him down, did evening chores and headed out to get some dinner. I am not sure what time it was when I went to bed, but I slept like a rock until my alarm went off early in the wee hours to go back to the track for morning chores.

Start of a race

Later that day, Eugene took me to two different tack stores. One consignment store, and Greenway Saddlery. My goal was to sit on as many dressage saddles as possible to determine what I like and what works for me. Eugene took pictures of me sitting in them, though unfortunately none are from the side as it was impossible to take a picture from that angle. I found that almost all of them were much too big and that my non-ass will fit best in a 17". Of which they had only two there. I also found that my pelvic bones dug into all of the saddles (thanks non-ass) but I was most comfortable in more of a flatter seat than a deeper seat. Big hard knee blocks are also a no, a sloping knee block or a squishy one is much perferred. The closest winning saddle was a 17" Niedersus. I did not buy it, of course, and will need to sell my other saddle too, but at least I have a better idea of what works.

Flatter seat

So kind to my knees

Greenway was spectacular. So many pretty things I see on the internet were there, and though they lacked saddles, they had coats upon coats to try. You see, last year I purchased a Horseware grey technical show jacket with the bling on the collar, size small. It looked adorable. And then I tried it on and it looked like a bag on me. So, I will be putting that for sale as well. Greenway had multiple types of techincal coats, so I tried on a few. My favorite was the Horze Crescendo. It had techincal fabric, but with a little weight so it had a more flattering shape. And little blingy buttons. I just wish it came in grey. The coat I tried on was a little tight, and I laughed when I saw the size. Apparently the sales associate thought I was an XXS (thanks for the confidence boost!) but I think an XS will fit quite nicely. Priced at $110, it will be a nice buy when I sell my other coat. The FOAL jacket I tried on was also very cute, but a medium and much too big. It had black piping and was on sale for $99 and I really wished it fit better.

Holy crap I am goofy looking

Damnit. Too big. 

Later that evening, my mom and grandma came up from Tuscon to pick me up. Eugene took great care of me and handed me off. I was so happy to see everybody.  And even though we got stopped on the freeway for 45 minutes due to a vehicular fire, at least it wasn't our vehicle and we eventually made it home.

Sexy Albert