Pre-trip preparations continue

Today we had the joy of our first snow here in Boise.  Temps have been in the high 30s, low 40s during the day and into the 20s at night.  It's supposed to get even colder over the next few days, with lows potentially in the single digits and highs in the low 30s.  One of my concerns with this trip to Florida is the drastic weather change.  Boise is very arid (low humidity) and right now pretty cold.  Florida is very humid (I think around 80 percent, depending) and yesterday the high in Wellington was almost 80 degrees.  That's fantastic if you're going on vacation but not fantastic if you are making a long-distance trip to compete in a horse show that requires tremendous amounts of energy from horse and rider.  We do have the advantage of going from 2500 feet to sea level (although I've never actually thought of that as that much of an advantage). 


To compensate I've been working the crap out of poor Victor.  Past couple days have been majorly intense, so that hopefully we can ease up a little when we get to Florida and (outside of the necessary acclimation period) things will be much lighter and therefore easier.  After two days of super intense work, I expected him to be a little tired today so I only lunged him.  Instead he was spunky and full of himself, which is a very good sign that his fitness levels are quite high (I'm sure the new snow helped too). 


Also, in addition to his usual grass hay 3 times a day, I added 1 flake of alfalfa at lunch and I've also started adding a second flake at dinner.  Plus he gets a large scoop of Purina ultium at lunch (in addition to 2 cups of rice bran).  I also give him 2 cups of beet pulp (soaked, obviously) and another 2 cups of rice bran with the beet pulp around 3pm.  I suspect I could even add another flake of alfalfa at breakfast.  If he were sedentary he'd gain weight so fast he'd look like a thelwell pony!


Ernie came out to the barn on Monday to spot Victor and I and give me some pointers, as I've been a little nervous about heading down there without my usual ground help.  You have to understand that the man is not even a week out of knee-replacement surgery (last Tuesday).  He is the epitome of tough.  And supportive!


I am pretty much ready for my trip outside of packing everything.  I have a coggins and health certificate (for both Florida and California), my FEI passport is up-to-date (and with me), I have my musical freestyle CDs (although I should probably run through that one more time), I have my wardrobe figured out, I have my flight and drive to California planned, I have my hotel, groom and rental car for Florida arranged.  Horse is clipped, although I should probably pull his mane to make him a little more presentable LOL.  Mostly I just need to get everything put together that needs to travel with us to California and then on to Florida.


Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I've not been thinking much about the holiday itself, although I will spend it with friends this year as I can't make the trip back to Portland when I leave Monday for my trip.  As I go through this Thanksgiving weekend though I am thankful for the ability to do all of this silly horse-show related stuff that I do.  I am thankful to my support crew, including my fantastic clients, vet, farrier, trainers, and of course, my mom and dad, without whom none of this would be possible.  Even though they think it is silly LOL.