The Florida Quest

 I finally set time and sat down to do my blog about Florida. It's only been months since my return but hey, I've been busy. So let's go back a few months and let me regale you with the latest adventures of Ali and the ever mischievous Little Hail.

I remember the exact moment I decided to go to Florida and really decide to make my bid at big, bad intermediate level. I'm confident I had a panic attack. The  'Oh lord, am I actually prepared for this?moment.  The commitment to going, time, money, being away from students and my husband? They all said 'yep' which was terrifying as I now had no excuse not to go. And the fact that my darling sister lives there and would let me sleep on her couch for free? Which at age 30 did make me pause because I am not 20 and in college anymore. I have to stretch like a cat now when I wake up in order to be serviceably sound by any vet standards. Full send-that's your life motto Ali, get after it and learn to become one with that pull out couch.

So I'm all packed up and set to go when I read about the new rule regarding the amount of prelims one must run before intermediate. All my previous qualifiers with Reddin vanished before my eyes and suddenly I was going to either spend my whole trip running prelims or I needed to stay longer. Me, of course, being my extra self was ready to pull the plug on the whole trip already because every time I looked at my fluffy white dog I started bawling because I would miss her. Lucas helped me revamp my new show schedule for a few hours while I cried into a pillow and told me I would stay longer and said he would not be responsible for me missing out on my dreams. Rude, but ok. Off to Florida I went in -7 degree weather, happy to be heading south.

I was lucky enough to take my mom's mare Maggie with me on the trip as my mom had a full knee replacement in February and wouldn't be able to ride for months. So here I was, missing out on the awful Wisconsin winter and riding and showing 2 nice horses Florida as well as baking my fabulous macaron cookies. Poor me, but do let me tell you how stressful it can be. Although I had a job at a tack shop that covered my weekly lessons, it didn't cover board, shows, or any kind of fun. I was living the sugar baby life and God Bless my husband. A truly good man. And patient. I think he needed me to go to Florida so he could get some peace and quiet. The tack shop was a delightful change of pace. Air conditioning and regular hours! What a neat concept. I had great people to work with who were also fellow riders and a super great group. I worked within the World Equestrian Center and it was quite an eye opening environment and very classy. I would have loved the opportunity to show there but time didn't allow for such a quest. 

Why didn't I write a diary or keep track of all these things while I was living it and post about it? Well a wise friend did tell me while I was there that I should do my blog while living there and I decided I didn't want to. What if I told everyone about the big plans and those plans went to hell or I failed miserably? Afterall, I'm only human and I wasn't sure I could deal with that disappointment or fallout, so I chose to only tell a few. It felt sneaky but at the same time, it was nice to just live for me and my dreams. This was my own selfish adventure and I got to spend my time truly investing in myself as a rider. As any busy trainer knows, we often put our needs after our students' because our personal riding dreams don't pay the bills unfortunately. None of us are drowning in sponsorships and endorsements that we can afford to just focus on us. But, we teach and ride because we love it. Most days.

    

My main focus in Florida was focusing on my show jumping. It has been a hang up for me for a long time. Give me enormous, solid tables and it's game on. Colored sticks that fall down and go boom keep me up at night. I didn't want to scrape by at my first intermediate and have the crowd gasping. I wanted to be adequate and successful and if great was in the cards, I'd take it. I worked tirelessly show jumping and dressaging until Hail and Maggie were blue in the face because now 2 horses relied on me to have it together at shows. I did not have it together at those first shows. I got in Hail's way constantly show jumping, under riding and pulling to fences and I think Maggie pondered launching me off at the first training. I couldn't just let them do their jobs. Anyone that knows me knows I overdo everything I do. I just can't help myself.

Slowly, jumping got easier and easier as I was able to watch videos of myself ride and I could see where I made the hiccup and then go fix it and then tack up the next horse and do it again. If there's any true game changer, it was jumping 2 way different horses and learning to handle things on the fly. The self doubt still lingered but I didn't let it color my vision. Every show felt like the pieces came together just a bit more as we neared the end of my time in Florida. I could pop Hail around a 4 foot plus course and leave everything up while maintaining breathing and having a pulse. The beauty was not having to run off and give a lesson after and instead digest what I learned and think about it while laying in the sun working on my tan. After all, it's 85 and sunny out. Gotta stay on top of those tan lines. I did get some fabulous sister time in between and tried to go to as many springs as possible as well as Disney, because it can't be all about horses all the time or I'd be crazy. Unless I'm already there...

I met some fantastic people during my time in Ocala. Whitney had a whole host of horsey friends that came to help me at shows or were happy to go spend a lazy day at the springs. It was so nice to just land in a friend group like that and immediately feel part of the squad. My own lovely college friend, Hannah, came for a week to hang out and super groom for me which she has many times. This nutcase also comes up to help with our horse trial every year and we adore her for it. My own crew loved and supported me from afar while the Ocala crew was subjected to all my macaron flavor attempts and flops. Even the farrier was given a handful of little glitter laden delights to try as well as some Wisconsin cheese curds, obviously. 

 

I made it to the last week and couldn't believe how fast my time had gone and how it was time to finally chase the red flags and 16 year old Ali's dreams. I was freaking out which is stupid because my dressage, show jumping and cross country instructors told me I was more than ready. Truly though, I was terrified of disappointing me. Of coming all the way here and not seeing it through. Whitney surprised me by having some glorious changes to my tails coat for dressage and seeing that lovely thing reminded me that this was all for fun. She was my mega cheerleader at every show. Always reminding me to not take myself too seriously and to enjoy this journey. Thank goodness for that. And for Lucas forcing me to eat even though they were fish tacos and I burped seafood my whole show jump round-I see you and I appreciate you and your intense need to feed me when I won't eat. 

I have to say that dressage ride was a pretty powerful moment when I was trucking down centerline on my little pony in my pink tails coat. Here I was, doing it. He put in an incredible ride for me ands we were in the middle of the pack which was just fine for me. I walked show jump and was relieved when Leah and I both remarked that it looked small!. The triple line would be tough as the poles blended with the fence line, but otherwise doable for a neurotic Ali and bored Little Hail. We warmed up without any drama and then it was time to tackle demons. Naturally I had nightmares of having every single rail which is not Hail's style at all but it can be mine if I let it be. I'm so proud because I had time to think in there and had only 1 rail which was a rider planning error. Pretty dang good for someone who likes to overthink!

I lived through the first 2 phases! Yay! Time to walk the part that is easy for me. I walked it once with Leah and then once with Whitney. I have to say, galloping up to one of the tougher questions where walking, Whitney had said "It would really suck to fall off here" made me remember to laugh and have fun on the ride. I had thought I would have gotten out there and add strided to everything but Hail filled in the gaps in my confidence and with every fence we got a bit bolder. Open corners, skinny chevrons, big tables and fun terrain questions were answered with gusto. He had the happiest gallop that day. Coming to that last combo I took the moment to remember and appreciate that I was going intermediate. I giggled like a child upon landing and giddy galloped on to the last. I cried my eyes out over that last fence. I gave Hail hugs he definitely didn't want and thanked him for being my wings and getting me where 4 other horses hadn't.  My crew cried happy tears with me and Hail had his weight in treats and love-winning was just the unexpected cherry on top. Hail deserves all the blue ribbons, I'm just lucky enough to hold the reins. And then I had to get it together to show Maggie yet. She was surprisingly pleasant that weekend because Kelly was there to watch her go and as much as Maggie hates me, she loves Kelly more. She put together 3 great phases to finish 3rd!

The overwhelming amount of love and support from my fellow Area 4 and 8 eventers has been astounding on this journey. I could not believe all the messages and texts I received. This community really is incredible. It is not like other sports where often you see a lot of hate towards other teams and players. Everyone riding horses knows it's truly you against yourself out here and trying to stay ahead of vet bills and drowning in show fees and not having a social life except for the one you have at shows. We all just want to do our own thing and have fun. I'm so exhausted from driving to Maryland to run our second intermediate last weekend and even out there, I got compliments on my pink coat and someone was impressed that I was taking my near pony, intermediate. We won by the skin of our teeth and our show jump round was tired from our drive, but I learned to ride a tired horse. Skill unlocked!

We head to Chatt Hills next weekend because I've always wanted to show there and then Ali goes on a much needed vacation. Little Hail continues to owe me not a dang thing and he has a major fan club as he deserves for being all cute and cool. He's such a little sasquatch at times but he enjoys a good victory gallop and tolerates me talking him through every cross country course even though he could do it better without me.  I'm so grateful for having Leah Lang-Gluscic to talk me off the ledge every show and jump lesson in Florida and for Dorothy and John trusting me with wonder pony and being my horse show parents down there. It was so fun then and the excitement continues for Little Hail and I on all of our adventures. Thanks for all the love show after show eventing family.

It's been a 2 year journey with Little Hail already this month and I couldn't be happier! Might need to get him a cake to eat or a new wooden post to crib on. Just today I was hacking him telling him how pretty he was when my bareback pad unbuckled and the girth was swinging around and it was just me and my sheer will not to hit the ground keeping me on in front of several lesson kids and my mom. So it's safe to say we are not taking ourselves too seriously over here. Might be time for that moscow mule and a good night of sleep... Happy eventing!