Whew, What a Trip

Canola field!

Some of you know that I was lucky enough to take Bacon to Rebecca Farm this year. After spectating last year, I knew it would be quite the goal to get us there. The place is kind of magical. There were over 700 horses there, with an electric atmosphere, bazillion rings with great footing, canola fields and the best cross country course around. With Bacon being a very sensitive and nervous girl, I wasn't sure how she was going to do with all of this. So of course, that made a knot in my stomach as we headed out with her and her traveling buddy, Justin.

That is not an effective bell boot.

Our first stop was Spokane for a dressage show and cross country schooling the weekend before. Bacon and I did not compete in the dressage show (need more funds, this crap is expensive), but we got to watch and cheer on E and Justin. The first night I rode her, she was on FIRE. Head shaking, no softness or relaxtion, threatening to rear. We were riding in a borrowed dressage saddle that seemed to fit her well enough, but hurt the hell out of me. I moved her out into the big ring to just make her go FORWARD and after a bit of that, we got some more behaved stuff out of her. I was exhausted. She had a quick lunge the next day, and then we schooled xc on Sunday before we headed towards Kalispell.

No hesitation.

Bacon was feeling more appropriate and polite for xc, thank god. She warmed up nicely, was a little spicy to the first jump, but settled quickly. We got to work playing around by the water again, practicing over the prelim jump in, the large bank in, etc. E was working with Justin on the intermediate chevron, but he was having some issues with straightness and not feeling that confident with it, so she switched it up to not hurt confidence for future jumps. Me being the curious turd I am wanted to see if Bacon thought it was doable. We dropped into the water and I rode her straight to it. The size caught her by surprise a little bit, but she sprung over it and gave me a laugh. Well, I guess those won't be a problem, but I don't forsee ever doing intermediate.

Yep. That is attractive.

She loves to splish splash.

There was a large prelim table that I had been in awe of since going to Spokane, and E thought we were very capable of doing it. I gulped, made a nice gallop to it with leg on and shoulders up, and she sailed over it. My legs were a little stupid over it, so I wanted to do it again. Once again, Bacon made it feel like cake. That kind of fun is dangerous. We headed over to the coffin and she pinged over it. Next, we wanted to test the bank combo. I think she expected that table to be as big as the last because she flew over it. Then it was down the bank, then up a bank and over the wood wagon. Of course, she did it easily. Lastly, we headed over to the corner and tested her out over that. Again, she thought that was easy. I felt pretty ready for Rebecca, so we called that good.

I swear, it looks bigger in person.

Weeeeeee!

Still don't know what my leg is doing.

Once we cooled the ponies off, we loaded them up and headed towards Kalispell. Most of the trip was uneventful, but we chose a different route to get there than usual. This meant lots of up and downhill on very windy roads. The truck pulling the rather large living quarters trailer had had enough of that and started billowing white smoke out of the hood when we pulled over to let it cool off. We were on an uphill slope, with a truck with no parking brake. Turning off the truck meant eliminating the trailer brakes as well (this truck is perhaps not the best truck) and that meant relying on the transmission to hold us up. I thought the truck was feeling a little weird when Erin asked if we were moving backwards. All of the boys and the 13yr old girl travelling with us were out of the truck and trailer, and Blake promptly noticed the tires moving and said yes. So, they began a scramble to place rocks and logs under all of the tires. My heart got a little fast with that moment, but we got the truck cooled and limped it the 20 miles to Rebecca. Reinforcements were called to bring a different truck to the show so we could haul with it home. That Ford was toast. Chevy to the rescue!

Yeah, I think we cleared this one Bacon.

Cute wood wagon.

We hurried out, snagged a pic in front of the competitor entrance, and got our ponies tucked into their new digs for the week. Bacon seemed to be one cool costumer so far, but we were some of the first people there. I wasn't sure if she was going to wind up once more horses and trucks and trailers showed up or not, but I tried to not think about it. I was exhausted and the show hadn't even started!

We made it!