Firewell
Well-Known Member
Helllooo from sunny, potentially rainey (as in 20% chance of rain) California. Everyone excited that it *might* rain properly for the firt time since last March...
I have learnt something new!!! There are no shows here after winter... Nadda. Nothing. Some dressage clinics ($150 dollars for a private dressage clinic wtf!!!). There IS a hunt. I met the hunt masters wife, but i'm not sure about taking the ginger bean. The ground is hard in places (either sand or ROCK hard) and I have just spent an inordinate amount of money flying essentially what is a pet across the world. He has to last to aged 25 now so perhaps no hunting?!
I have learnt about the shows there is for next year. There are 4 events!! Yes 4. One is 15 mins away and it is the property of an advanced event rider here and she hold two affilliated events a year. The second event is about 2 hours away and they also hold two. That's it.... unless I go to Arizona... Tbh it doesn't really bother me as 4 is enough for me, I have to affilliate for them but from what I gather it is a cheaper than in the UK. They also run over 3 days
. This is to accommodate everyone who travels for so far. They have 1 day *training* events here but the proper events are 3 day. Dressage on day 1. XC on day 2. SJ on day 3. When you travel 5+ hours to get to an event there is not enough hours in the day to compete and then come home!
They do have a lot of hunter/jumper shows. It is really big. They hold major shows in LA which is 2.5hrs away from me and they hold big shows in Santa Barbara 1/2hr from me. There is a local equestrian centre that is 5 mins away who hold unaffilliated (training) shows over the summer plus they hold gymkanas (lol) and a lot of western stuff.
There is some dressage and the American equivalent of affilliated dressage 1.5hrs away.
It is sooooooooooooooooo different here! They have much less entries. They got excited at a local show because they had 30 entries for the entire day! I was gobsmacked we have that amount in one class in England!
There's enough to keep me busy though, there is enough to do 2 comps per month within 1.5hrs over the summer and with my baby to look after that's more than enough. It's just strange to me ha ha. The serious competitiors here spend a lot of ££££ and travel huge distances to compete.
Jae and I are going to do the 4 events, jumpers (like showjumping) and dressage. They think he will do really well in Jumpers.
Hunters is another mystery to me. Hunters (apart from Western) is the most popular discipline here in California. It is basically showing over jumps. The jumps are mostly small, x poles and 18inchs (yes really) but they can go bigger 3ft+. I have looked at the schedules for the shows and they have about 5 different hunter classes over 18inch high fences HA HA HA. Jae and I would fail miserably as the horses are trained to go very much on the forehand and they behave impeccably. They do perfect flying changes and go to each X pole on a perfect stride. The riders sit out of the saddle and lean forwards and the horses sort of lope in a relaxed forward low canter with the noses poking out and the riders have very baggy reins. It is baffling to me as we have our horses a lot more uptogether but it is super super serious. The horses are worth ££££££ and a lot of money goes into training them. In a way I guess it is nice because it's safe. It is serious here in Cali apparently because there is a big health and safety culture. A lot of places don't want to pay insurance to hold bigger jumper classes or eventing. The jumpers go up to 1m5 though and bigger for rated shows. Theres lot's at 90cm to 1m which suits us down to the ground.
Jae is still loving here. He got a bit norty because I was pumping him full of hard feed not aware of how rich the super green, super charged hay is here. After one interesting session where he showed off his flamboyant jumping style leaping 1m like it was 7ft and then charging off flybucking, bronching and squealing he is now on one pony nut and just hay.
He has also been shaved to within an inch of his life. I said to the lovely mexican groom could he have a hunter clip with his legs left on and half a head and I got a confused look. Emile said 'legs???? No legs, too hot for legs'. So I said 'errrr OK, be careful of his back legs and he doesn't like his ears being done'. Emile said 'no hair in ears'. I gave in and this is the result:-
So the cheapy racer is feeling dead smexy and struts round the yard like he is the most important horse there (top bred Oldenburg's are who????).
And a little taste of what riding in Cali looks like:-
I'm getting my trailer soon and we have made a friend! So looking forward to trailering to some amazing riding to go out together. The countryside is so different and breathtaking. They also will not pull a trailer with anything less than 1/2t long wheel base truck and prefer to tow with a 3/4 ton truck. These vehicles are massive. They would never dream of towing with the 4x4's we have in the UK considering them far to light and not powerful or heavy enough. They don't even tow with range rover sized vehicles. I guess it is easy to be fussy though when fuel is 1/3 of the price it is in England.
Ha another thing that is SOOOOOO cool is watching the irrigators water the school. Amazeballs, they have about 10 huge irrigators and water shoots out about 20ft in the air over the arena. I had to take photos but they are on my camera and I couldn't be bothered to take them off. I have never seen that in my life. Will post next time.
Thanks for reading xx
I have learnt something new!!! There are no shows here after winter... Nadda. Nothing. Some dressage clinics ($150 dollars for a private dressage clinic wtf!!!). There IS a hunt. I met the hunt masters wife, but i'm not sure about taking the ginger bean. The ground is hard in places (either sand or ROCK hard) and I have just spent an inordinate amount of money flying essentially what is a pet across the world. He has to last to aged 25 now so perhaps no hunting?!
I have learnt about the shows there is for next year. There are 4 events!! Yes 4. One is 15 mins away and it is the property of an advanced event rider here and she hold two affilliated events a year. The second event is about 2 hours away and they also hold two. That's it.... unless I go to Arizona... Tbh it doesn't really bother me as 4 is enough for me, I have to affilliate for them but from what I gather it is a cheaper than in the UK. They also run over 3 days
. This is to accommodate everyone who travels for so far. They have 1 day *training* events here but the proper events are 3 day. Dressage on day 1. XC on day 2. SJ on day 3. When you travel 5+ hours to get to an event there is not enough hours in the day to compete and then come home!They do have a lot of hunter/jumper shows. It is really big. They hold major shows in LA which is 2.5hrs away from me and they hold big shows in Santa Barbara 1/2hr from me. There is a local equestrian centre that is 5 mins away who hold unaffilliated (training) shows over the summer plus they hold gymkanas (lol) and a lot of western stuff.
There is some dressage and the American equivalent of affilliated dressage 1.5hrs away.
It is sooooooooooooooooo different here! They have much less entries. They got excited at a local show because they had 30 entries for the entire day! I was gobsmacked we have that amount in one class in England!
There's enough to keep me busy though, there is enough to do 2 comps per month within 1.5hrs over the summer and with my baby to look after that's more than enough. It's just strange to me ha ha. The serious competitiors here spend a lot of ££££ and travel huge distances to compete.
Jae and I are going to do the 4 events, jumpers (like showjumping) and dressage. They think he will do really well in Jumpers.
Hunters is another mystery to me. Hunters (apart from Western) is the most popular discipline here in California. It is basically showing over jumps. The jumps are mostly small, x poles and 18inchs (yes really) but they can go bigger 3ft+. I have looked at the schedules for the shows and they have about 5 different hunter classes over 18inch high fences HA HA HA. Jae and I would fail miserably as the horses are trained to go very much on the forehand and they behave impeccably. They do perfect flying changes and go to each X pole on a perfect stride. The riders sit out of the saddle and lean forwards and the horses sort of lope in a relaxed forward low canter with the noses poking out and the riders have very baggy reins. It is baffling to me as we have our horses a lot more uptogether but it is super super serious. The horses are worth ££££££ and a lot of money goes into training them. In a way I guess it is nice because it's safe. It is serious here in Cali apparently because there is a big health and safety culture. A lot of places don't want to pay insurance to hold bigger jumper classes or eventing. The jumpers go up to 1m5 though and bigger for rated shows. Theres lot's at 90cm to 1m which suits us down to the ground.
Jae is still loving here. He got a bit norty because I was pumping him full of hard feed not aware of how rich the super green, super charged hay is here. After one interesting session where he showed off his flamboyant jumping style leaping 1m like it was 7ft and then charging off flybucking, bronching and squealing he is now on one pony nut and just hay
.He has also been shaved to within an inch of his life. I said to the lovely mexican groom could he have a hunter clip with his legs left on and half a head and I got a confused look. Emile said 'legs???? No legs, too hot for legs'. So I said 'errrr OK, be careful of his back legs and he doesn't like his ears being done'. Emile said 'no hair in ears'. I gave in and this is the result:-
So the cheapy racer is feeling dead smexy and struts round the yard like he is the most important horse there (top bred Oldenburg's are who????).
And a little taste of what riding in Cali looks like:-
I'm getting my trailer soon and we have made a friend! So looking forward to trailering to some amazing riding to go out together. The countryside is so different and breathtaking. They also will not pull a trailer with anything less than 1/2t long wheel base truck and prefer to tow with a 3/4 ton truck. These vehicles are massive. They would never dream of towing with the 4x4's we have in the UK considering them far to light and not powerful or heavy enough. They don't even tow with range rover sized vehicles. I guess it is easy to be fussy though when fuel is 1/3 of the price it is in England.
Ha another thing that is SOOOOOO cool is watching the irrigators water the school. Amazeballs, they have about 10 huge irrigators and water shoots out about 20ft in the air over the arena. I had to take photos but they are on my camera and I couldn't be bothered to take them off. I have never seen that in my life. Will post next time.
Thanks for reading xx
Send us some of your Florida heat and sunshine! x
