We're Back!

I know, I know, it has been a really long time. Way too long, in fact. Since the last blog we have had a lot of great and a lot of really not great things happen. I apologize for not keeping everyone up to date; but I got a touch overwhelmed. Suffice is to say, we are going to pretend that I blogged just last week, and now here we are again!

We are so so happy to be back in Aiken!!! Trisha, Gunsmoke and I got all of the ponies settled in to our amazing facility in Hatchaway Bridge Farms. If I could own a place in Aiken, it would be here! It is like coming home again! And I know the horses feel the same way. Some had been here before, and I guess they told the others what to expect because they have all been on their best behavior! We got straight to work, lots of sales horses and the competitions always seem to start sooner than anticipated.

I was scheduled to be the President of the Ground Jury the first weekend at Sporting Days, and that was a lot of fun. What a great venue to have and such an enthusiastic and supportive group of volunteers - and I was surrounded by a crew of outstanding officials and organizers that made my job super easy. Thank you all! I also got the opportunity to judge the show jumping at Full Gallop and what a bunch of great jumping horses there were. I think that my own competition string has their work cut out for them to hang with this crowd! I think, however, that they are ready to meet my challenge. They have been schooling great, we had a stellar time at Gibbs last week, and we did the schooling show at Sporting Days to get everything fine tuned. Feeling confident that tomorrow (Paradise Farm Horse Trials) is going to be a great start to 2012!

When I get a moment, I hope to get more pictures uploaded to the Blue Clover Eventing page on Facebook, check them out. Photo credits to Richard Gamble, who captured this amazing shot of our barn on his phone! Imagine what it looks like in real life! Our new schooling field is incredible. If I have learned nothing else in the past few months, it is to keep finding something to be grateful for, and as I look around where I am right now, I can hardly keep track of them all!