United States Eventing Association

Well, it’s over and done. All that hustle and bustle, all the prep work, all the checking legs in the wee hours of the night, all the blog writing for useventing.com, and it all actually did reach a conclusion. Amazing how even when we think time is moving so slowly, how it’s really flying by.

We’ve arrived! All the midnight trot sets, sandbox lessons, jumper shows and time spent with my pony are now culminating with this weekend. What a whirlwind to get to a spring three-day by the first weekend of April — especially with not making a trip down South — but P and I made it, amongst engagements and employment and all that good stuff that comes with life.

When I was growing up in Southern Illinois, we had this wonderful little show circuit called the Heart of America Horse Show Association (HAHSA). Even though events within six hours were few and far between, we had plenty of local barns (within an hour) where there were shows.

After having last weekend off, I once again found myself traveling down the very familiar US Hwy #1 to the Southern Pines Horse Trials (I). There’s just something about competing at Southern Pines that makes you think the people running the event really know what they are doing. The stalls are wonderful, the footing is awesome, the facility is beautiful, and they are constantly evolving with cool new tracks and improvements.

Before I even get started, I must digress a little bit to explain some terminology – the PMP. Yes, I am aware that the world is an Apple world, and I am an Apple girl. However, my version of the Apple brand is my desktop Mac, circa 2002, and haven’t been able to afford anything ‘Apple’ since then (I didn’t buy the first one, but instead received it with scholarship).

After spending the winter months doing trot sets, playing in the sandbox (dressage arena), and trotting over what seems like a million gymnastics, we now have the first event of the season behind us, and we are careening full speed ahead towards the Training 3-Day at FENCE Horse Trials.