First.... the Olympics.
I made it my goal this year to watch a little bit of everything and I think I've done a pretty good job. Granted, I'm behind on the events that started this week (track events mostly) but I'm hoping that NBC keeps the replays up after the Olympics so I can take some time to watch them in the coming weeks.
The first bittersweet part of the Olympics has been the Americans' performances in the equestrian events. Overall, we really haven't lived up to expectations. The team won't be bringing home a team medal and we only have three individual chances now in two events, but even their chances are looking slim.
However, it's been great to watch Great Britain win two different team gold medals (in show jumping and dressage) and a silver medal on their home turf. Especially during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year.
I was surprised to learn that Great Britain never won a medal in dressage (not sure if this is overall or just for team medals) but they made a big splash on that front by winning the whole thing.
Another bittersweet moment was watching Michael Phelps' last Olympics. He retires as the most decorated Olympian and it's pretty awesome to know that I watched all his Olympic performances through the years. Talk about an awesome athlete! Of even more interest to me, it looks like his next venture will be buying racehorses. That would be beyond cool!
For my own exciting news of the week, I finally got back in the saddle on Saturday after a three month absence. Jen Rotyz and I (read a blog from earlier in the year for more on how awesome Jen is) went out to lunch and she asked if I wanted to go riding afterwards. I am desperately missing being in the saddle so I jumped on the chance (no pun intended), even though I haven't been in an english saddle since probably February (my first words to her were "excuse me if I look like a fish" when she brought out the saddles).
When she made a comment that "Boomer" (Point of Impact) hadn't been rode in a month, I figured that I'd be on her other horse so it was a major surprise when she not only had me catch Boomer but also let me ride him. Boomer is the most expensive Point Given foal ever sold so just on that fact, it was awesome to get to ride him. But if you know my obsession when it comes to Point Given, you'll understand how high I was floating at getting to ride one of his babies.
PG is fully responsible for bringing me into horse racing and is hands down my favorite racehorse of all time. I had a BLAST riding and remembered just how important it is for me to be around horses. I could feel my mood change and I'm still on the riding "high" five days after the ride.
I think Jen was happy to have someone else on Boomer as well because she kept taking pictures while we were riding, so I have "proof" I got to ride such an awesome horse. I don't have nearly enough pictures of me riding (I'm the one that takes pictures, not the one that gets them taken) so it's always nice to have more!
Here's a picture we had one of the owners of Blackwood Stables snap, which has a funny story behind it but Jen may disown me if I told it on the blog, haha.
Jen knows that eventually I will be searching for a Point Given baby and I told her that after seeing pictures of Boomer and me, I am claiming all 17.3 hands of him. We make a handsome pair, don't you think?
After our ride, we visited Three Chimneys stallion complex where I got to see my favorite boy from afar (he was on the other side of the pasture) and also got to see the new boys on the farm in person.
I've seen Cactus Ridge before when he was standing at another farm, but I hadn't seen the other two up close.
One of the new boys, Ice Box, is entering his second year at stud in 2013 and still looks like he's in race shape. I'm pretty sure they could take him out of his stallion, put him in training, and he'd still be able to run a route. He's also a sweetheart and loved the attention we gave him. Caleb's Posse was my favorite three-year-old last year after Stay Thirsty and I had never seen him up close so it was awesome to see him so soon after retirement.
Caleb was a massive ham when I went to take a picture of him. When he heard the word "Picture", he looked at me and then struck a somewhat "professional stallion" pose, which made me chuckle.
Finally, a last little update if you are still reading.
This week, I am working the USEF merchandise booth for the US Pony Finals. I always knew there was a lot of money in ponies but I don't think I realized just how much. Today, I saw many "big" purchases (hundreds of dollars worth of gear) in the merchandise tent and it blew my mind! We had a mad rush from when we opened at 8am until about noon and I've been told we may have a few more rushes like that in the coming days but probably not that bad.
All I can say about that is "Thank the Lord!", there was massive running around going on and we sold probably 3/4 of our merchandise before noon. We start again at 8am tomorrow and I work until we close on Sunday afternoon so I'm expecting very little sleep over the coming days. I guess the good news is that it's not going to be as crazy as Young Riders!
Well that's it for my thoughts this week.
Until next time,
Mel
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