There is no Irene in Lexington

As many people in the world know, there was a hurricane this past weekend (and if you didn't know then I'd like to welcome you to the internet, because surely this must be your first time). Since I live almost directly on the ocean, my mom and thought it would be a grand idea to run away to the mountains.
After loading up all three horses we booked it right on out of Virginia Beach. Unfortunately so did the rest of the city and we all met up for what was essentially a tailgating party on I-264. We then commenced the tour of Tidewater so that Apollo could see all of the area before he left...or we had to go all the way around to find a way out, same difference.

This was just the out skirting clouds of the Thunderstorm

Finally, 5 hours and a nasty state-wide thunderstorm later we had made it to Richmond (normally a 2 hour trip btw) then 2 more hours and we were finally pulling into the Virginia Horse Center, where we were greeted by the strangest stall decor I have ever seen.

(The mulch and the curtains were all so that their trophy boxes had a nice backdrop)

Turns out the North American Arabian World Championships (yeah I know, doesn't make sense to me either) was happening at the same time. Besides the fact that this group rented out the entire horse park when they were only using 25% of it is beyond me, but the folks at the Horse Center were as hospitable as ever. They let us come in at 10:30, security came around and turned the lights on, in the morning they watered and dragged both the lower ring and the indoor ring so that we and the rest of the evacuees had a place to ride and were very helpful all 4 times we went over to buy more bedding and hay because we are very bad at math.
The next day I had a very nice ride with the ever fantastic Rachel Lawson (if you don't know her yet, you will very soon because she is an amazing rider) then on Sunday we moved Apollo over to Sunrise Stables where he will be living while I go do this "college" thing.

Apollo and I doing flatwork at Sunrise Stables

Overall the weekend was lovely, weather was cool (highest was around 83 degrees) with nice breezes blowing through.

My mom's dog Typhoon grazing with the horses (literally grazing...he's species confused)

Oh yeah, and that whole hurricane thing? I think we got 27 whole drops of rain and a partially overcast sky. Simply unbearable.

Dressage Boot Camp-Check!

As I mentioned before, after Fair Hill Apollo would be spending the next two weeks in dressage boot camp with Holly while I ran home, did some college shopping, spent time with Cordoba my other horse and spent a week in the Keys.
We flew home on Saturday, drove back down to NC on Sunday, had a lesson with Holly at 7:30 am on Monday then Apollo had his feet done and we drove back up getting home around 7ish.
In my lesson with Holly she started out riding him to show me how she's been warming up, what to watch for when he's trying to evade actually working, etc. Basically I was watching this long legged bay gelding go around the ring thinking, okay this horse is amazing but now when is she going to bring MY horse out??
Well as i should have guessed, Holly is amazing. Apollo was immediately moving straight, through, and supple-y at all 3 gaits. A small head toss here and there assured me that it was in fact my horse.
When it was my turn to get on all I could think was that I hadn't ridden in a week, okay just don't mess him up!!
Well i can't say it was my best riding ever but Apollo was behaving incredibly. I wasn't doing anything, I was just thinking what I wanted to do and he would do it.
I also got my new favorite jacket that i may never take off even if it is in the 90's and humid:
HCH jacket with sponsors on one sleeve and my name on the other!
After an incredibly tactful proposition to Holly by the HCH working students back in the beginning of July she ordered these for us and they just came in after Fair Hill. We are all incredibly excited about them and I can guarantee you that I will be wearing my jacket with my Stew Crew shirt and my HCH hat at Virginia HT! (and probably before then too).
I don't have any shows planned until VAHT but that can change very quickly as soon as i figure out my school schedule. Apollo is now at Calypso Run Farm in VB where he is finally going to get to jump and gallop (and do some more dressage but shhh don't let him know that!) until we pack him and most of my stuff into the trailer for college!
Oh and btw, did anyone else feel that 5.8 earthquake that rattled the whole eastern seaboard from New York to North Carolina or was that just me?

Finished???

A year ago before heading to Susan Harris' stable in Louisville, KY to work for a month I started searching the internet for barns near colleges knowing that the inevitable would happen: I would have to apply for college eventually. When this happened I wanted to have a list of places that first off had barns nearby. This immediately ruled out city schools. In my online adventures I came across Equiventure, a barn set 15 mins away from Duke University (score!!!!). And who was based out of Equiventure but the fabulous Holly Hudspeth herself (double score!!!). I immediately emailed Holly asking if she wanted a working student next summer (because while summer '10 was full, summer '11 was looking widee open).
I later talked to Boyd Martin's working student coordinator, Lillian Heard about working for Boyd in the time that Holly would be lazy-ing around giving birth to a child and what not.
So by the time this spring came around I already had my days from May to August filled with working student fun. Every time I saw anything referencing Holly, Boyd, summer, working students, horses etc I immediately thought about what I would be doing and would get excited all over again. This resulted in me getting randomly energized throughout the spring and telling the most unhorsey people ever about all the details of my summer.
Well as shown through my blog this summer, I did it! It is now August, I've been home for 4 days now and am slowly realizing that my super exciting and educational summer is essentially over. Sure I've got a few more weeks of buying stuff for college and lounging around to do, but I'm not working anymore. And boy let me tell you, that is a very, very, VERY strange thought.
In a quick recap:
-Working for Holly again was amazing
-Apollo and I made some huge progress on the flat over fences
-Apollo is still in NC until the 21st going through some intense dressage bootcamp with Holly
-Apollo was unbelievable in warm up and I just wasn't able to get the same feeling once we went into the ring. But I had so much fun just doing dressage and not fighting him through the test that I didn't even mind our 42
-picking up the final trot a huge bug landed on Apollo's neck and he tried so hard to ignore the bloodsucker hanging from his neck (huge progress, just take my word for it)
-We placed 4th in JYOP at Fair Hill HT (so we have now placed 4th-7th in prelim, yay!!!)
-Maxine and Ned Divine also placed 4th in JOT
-Allie and Notable Grace did very well after dressage and show jumping but had a silly stop xc which cost them a ribbon in JOT
All in all I have had an amazing summer so far, and can't wait till we go back to get Apollo to see how much he will have improved since Fair Hill!