This weekend I had was able to attend the Longines Masters show in Los Angeles for a couple days. I've known about the event for a few months, but hemmed and hawed about going because of the cost, finding people to go with, etc etc. However, about a month ago I won a pair of tickets from a horse publication. That pretty much sealed the deal-I was dying to get down there!
I wrangled a couple friends who at this point wouldn't mind doing the drive with me, we worked out a free hotel thanks to one of my friend's hotel points, and decided that we would cram as much horse time in a whirlwind 48 hours.
Thankfully the drive went pretty painlessly. No traffic out of Sacramento, and the traffic once we hit LA was minimal. Made it down with plenty of time to shower, get ready, and head over to the show to check out the vendors before watching the first class.
There is a lot to say about this show, so I'll just start with the amazing and the good.
The Amazing:
I think this goes without saying but DAMN. The caliber of the rider and horse at this show is top notch. They allowed 2* riders to show (for a hefty sum) but even those people were some of the best ammys and pros in the US. As for the 5* riders (the Masters riders) that kind of goes without saying. The top riders IN THE WORLD with their TOP horses. This wasn't a second string horse type of show. People brought their "A" horses. I got to see Cristallo, Blue Angel, Willow, Zavall, Simon and Cos I Can, just to name a few. To see these horse and rider combinations in the flesh after only watching them on internet live feeds is an experience I will never forget. I mean at a couple points in time when I was watching the riders warm up, I could have reached out and touched them. It was pretty amazing.
On top of that, the riders were pretty accessible. They walked around the venue just like everyone else. In fact, I encountered Mclain Ward as I was leaving my seat the first night. I might have geeked out a bit and tried to be all sneaky to take a pic, but he totally caught me and said it was fine to take a picture with him. So I did. I admit to being a total dork but whatever! It was very very cool. I also was standing literally right behind Reed Kessler and we rode the escalator down after the show. She may not have the nicest reputation, but I will say she is very pretty in person and just seems kind of normal. I wanted to say hello but it was after her not so great ride in the GP class on the last day so used my better judgement and just smiled.
Also amazing was the venue. The convention center was totally transformed. Beautiful styling everywhere, along with a nicely thought out warm up ring in the center of the lobby area (so everyone could watch), plenty of seating, and a gorgeous arena. Parking was easy, access to everything was easy and even for being such a "fancy" show with many millions of dollars of horseflesh, everyone working was pretty easy going. Backpacks didn't get checked, we didn't get hassled for bringing in outside food or taking lots of pictures. It was a good mix of fairly casual people, and then people dressed to the nines (VIPs).
Speaking of people being dressed to the nine...SO MANY CELEBRITIES! I try not to geek out about celebrities but sometimes you just can't help it.
The Good:
Food and drink was fantastic, but has been deemed only good because of the prices. I understand why it was all so expensive but the second day I went to have a mimosa and it was $20! I almost choked. Still delicious and the bartender was super generous (poured a full glass of champagne, let me drink quite a bit of it, topped it off again and then added the OJ) but man...that's more than what I pay for umlimited at brunch.
Shopping also fell under the good. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be. Vendor space was pretty limited, but everything except maybe one vendor was stuff I would see/find at any horse show in my area. The highlight was the D'yon booth. Huge with tons of beautiful leather goods. They ended up giving a deal to us on a couple of cute little crossbody purses and I bought a pair of lined spur straps that were very affordable. I did see a couple of other things I *could* have bought but I resisted since I think the shopping will be better at the Penn National show I'm going to in a few weeks.
Next post will be on some of the crazy/interesting observations I made, as well as the bad!
Monday, September 29, 2014
Friday, September 19, 2014
Baby J and Riding Update!
So this is my first post since Baby J (Jynx) was born. It has been a rocky, rocky road to say the least. He was at the vets for almost 7 weeks, although I think we could have pulled him out much sooner had the vet been more proactive. Lesson learned. Long story short, the legs improved dramatically enough that he could have gone home, but vet kept pulling bloodwork and Baby J had a mild infection for quite awhile. We probably did three rounds of antibiotics with limited success. Finally, after that third round vet suggested plasma transfusion. Which, unknown to me, he told my trainer/breeding partner he would do the first week. Well lo and behold, after the transfusion his numbers pretty much came normal. GRRR!!! He still continued to struggle with the knee a bit, as well as the lovely addition of pressure sores from the splint. And towards the end of his stay, he started not wanting to put weight on his leg that had been more seriously contracted (also had the pressure sores on the fetlock). All these things made the vet want to keep him longer, so we did.
However, it did get to a point where we were both like "wow, our bill is going to be really high, let's just pull him out, bring him back to the barn and see how he does". Vet thought he was good enough to do that (and would periodically check on him) so we brought him home.
He made HUGE leaps of improvement once he got home. HUGE. I was able to get his sore healed up in a couple weeks (whereas it was improving super slowly with the vet). He had no issues putting weight on the leg when I started bandaging him, and then wouldn't when the vet came to bandage him. We figured out it was because of the way he was being wrapped and the type of bandage the vet was using. I think it was just so tight, it was irritating that sore and making Baby J not want to put weight on it. Leg started straightening out more as he used it more (since he was on stall rest at the vets). Started putting on some weight, and some muscle.
He also started to get limited turnout. Oh man...I was SO happy the first time I got to turn him out for an hour. HE was so happy! To see him running around like a normal baby was supposed 7 weeks after being born was awesome.
And all through this he kept his curious, and very sweet personality. He is now super duper easy to handle, and loves humans. I guess that's the one perk to being handled every single day for a variety of treatments since birth?
Anyway, we named him Jynx because its meant to be a little tongue in cheek. He has been jinxed! He's had a lot thrown at him at such a young age and so far, has come through the other side relatively unscathed (just has a few scars, which I'm hoping will disappear in a few shedding cycles). I'm just thrilled to have mom and baby back at the barn. Arwen is doing great-I was warned she would drop a ton of weight but so far, she is holding her condition fantastically. I'm planning on getting on her back a little this winter to just do some flat work and get her a little tighter in prep for her next breeding (will talk more about that later...the stallion search continues). I am dying to bring her into the arena with jumps/poles, just to see what the baby will do with it all!
Speaking of riding, I have still been taking lessons consistently on a handful of horses. Its just been kind of a rotation of whats available (and of whats available, what I am able to ride!). I tried leasing one for about a month but that didn't end well. Started out fine, but after about two weeks horse started trying to rear. It was really weird-I attribute it to some kind of pain issue because other than that he is a pretty good guy who does like his job. Lately I've been riding a horse one of the juniors is "leasing" who is super fun and I like a lot, but is tricky. He has a stop in him that he employs when you are not accurate which unfortunately for me, happens a lot. Not the stopping but the lack of accuracy...anyway, I guess you could say he is not super forgiving in that sense. But in others, he's great. He kind of trucks along, especially since we've only been jumping 2'3-2'6" lately. Although last night, with my trainer back from a show, I got to jump him up a lot which was great. Probably around 3'-3'1". This horse has an AMAZING jump, just so smooth, round, slow and lovely so jumping him up was an experience. He took one oxer huge, and I got a little jumped loose and may have shrieked, but hey, I stayed on. Left that lesson with a really big smile on my face.
So that's pretty much what's been going on in my horse world. Lots of happenings coming up, and I do need to update on the CF front, although that isn't super exciting (besides me hitting some PR's, which I guess is exciting in its own way).
However, it did get to a point where we were both like "wow, our bill is going to be really high, let's just pull him out, bring him back to the barn and see how he does". Vet thought he was good enough to do that (and would periodically check on him) so we brought him home.
He made HUGE leaps of improvement once he got home. HUGE. I was able to get his sore healed up in a couple weeks (whereas it was improving super slowly with the vet). He had no issues putting weight on the leg when I started bandaging him, and then wouldn't when the vet came to bandage him. We figured out it was because of the way he was being wrapped and the type of bandage the vet was using. I think it was just so tight, it was irritating that sore and making Baby J not want to put weight on it. Leg started straightening out more as he used it more (since he was on stall rest at the vets). Started putting on some weight, and some muscle.
He also started to get limited turnout. Oh man...I was SO happy the first time I got to turn him out for an hour. HE was so happy! To see him running around like a normal baby was supposed 7 weeks after being born was awesome.
And all through this he kept his curious, and very sweet personality. He is now super duper easy to handle, and loves humans. I guess that's the one perk to being handled every single day for a variety of treatments since birth?
Anyway, we named him Jynx because its meant to be a little tongue in cheek. He has been jinxed! He's had a lot thrown at him at such a young age and so far, has come through the other side relatively unscathed (just has a few scars, which I'm hoping will disappear in a few shedding cycles). I'm just thrilled to have mom and baby back at the barn. Arwen is doing great-I was warned she would drop a ton of weight but so far, she is holding her condition fantastically. I'm planning on getting on her back a little this winter to just do some flat work and get her a little tighter in prep for her next breeding (will talk more about that later...the stallion search continues). I am dying to bring her into the arena with jumps/poles, just to see what the baby will do with it all!
Speaking of riding, I have still been taking lessons consistently on a handful of horses. Its just been kind of a rotation of whats available (and of whats available, what I am able to ride!). I tried leasing one for about a month but that didn't end well. Started out fine, but after about two weeks horse started trying to rear. It was really weird-I attribute it to some kind of pain issue because other than that he is a pretty good guy who does like his job. Lately I've been riding a horse one of the juniors is "leasing" who is super fun and I like a lot, but is tricky. He has a stop in him that he employs when you are not accurate which unfortunately for me, happens a lot. Not the stopping but the lack of accuracy...anyway, I guess you could say he is not super forgiving in that sense. But in others, he's great. He kind of trucks along, especially since we've only been jumping 2'3-2'6" lately. Although last night, with my trainer back from a show, I got to jump him up a lot which was great. Probably around 3'-3'1". This horse has an AMAZING jump, just so smooth, round, slow and lovely so jumping him up was an experience. He took one oxer huge, and I got a little jumped loose and may have shrieked, but hey, I stayed on. Left that lesson with a really big smile on my face.
So that's pretty much what's been going on in my horse world. Lots of happenings coming up, and I do need to update on the CF front, although that isn't super exciting (besides me hitting some PR's, which I guess is exciting in its own way).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)