Blenheim Wrap-up

I have finally found some time to give a proper update. This is mostly due to the fact that I am stuck on an airplane and have been so for the past 12 hours. It’s a good excuse to have nothing better to do than type though, right?

Blenheim week was SO much fun! I have thought about it, but cannot decide what my favorite part was. As always, I love doing my job. Taking care of Trevor at a three-day is a great thrill for me. I absolutely love brushing him to a shine, braiding him, wrapping his tail, taking him for walks, and watching him do his incredible job. Then there was the scenery. What an absolutely gorgeous place! There was no place you could go on the property that could be called ‘average’. The people were amazing too. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We met so many great people and had so much fun with our new friends! David Green drove us to Blenheim and stayed there in his lorry for the week. He was such a fun and helpful host. We had a lot of fun hanging out with David at the evening events in the tent. We also met a great group of people that came over from France for the event. They were unfortunately unsuccessful in making me fluent in French by Sunday…lol! But it was certainly not for a lack of trying!

I walked the cross country course Friday night just like I always do at Trevor’s three-days. It was an absolutely *stunning* course. Every fence was meticulously built and decorated by the same man who designed the course at last year’s Olympics in Hong Kong. You could really see the similarities between this course and the course from Hong Kong. It was very cool. Trevor did a beautiful job on course Saturday morning. Every question Jess asked of him was answered with confidence and ease. He has really come to the point where he knows his job at the 3* level and has no problem doing it. So proud of him! They say that Blenheim is one of, if not *the*, biggest 3* courses in the world so we are especially excited that he accomplished what he did. Naturally, it is quite an effort to run XC at such an event. Trevor came off course well and did well through the evening. As always his legs were iced to ensure that his soft tissues stayed firm and sound. I spent several hours in his stall making sure he was well hydrated and happy. When I was finally happy to leave him to get some rest for the evening, Amanda, Haykel (one of our French friends) and I went to the big Riders and Grooms party in the tent. It was so fun! There was a lot of very loud fun music, people dancing and having fun, and everyone basically celebrated a successful day. The party gave me an uncharacteristic second wind and I finally forced myself to go to bed around 12:30 (only because I knew the alarm would be going off at 4:30) and I laid in my bed and listened to the music of the party until they finally sent everyone to their lorries for the night.

Sunday morning came all too early after a long Saturday. But I was up and ready for the challenge. Sunday mornings at three-days tend to play host to 3 of the most stressful hours of the year. Haha! The barns do not open to grooms until 2 hours or so before the Final Horse Inspection. We all lined up and were at the barn gate at 5 Sunday morning to race to get everything done in time. Horses have to be braided, groomed spotless (sometimes including a bath), legs iced (again, just to ensure that the legs are taken care of after Saturday’s hard work), jogged for the Team Vet, and then prepped for the Official Jog by 7:30. It’s definitely a race against the clock! But we got it all done, as always. Trevor was a little tired from his work on Saturday (weren’t we all!) but was the picture of soundness and jogged brilliantly. He show jumped a bit before lunch Sunday morning and had a really great round to finish off the week. He and Jess worked together so well to put together a very fluent and lovely trip around the show jumping course. They had 2 rails down, but for no reason other than being a bit tired and not getting those feet up quite high enough. It was a round to be proud of though and everyone was so very pleased with how the week went.

I’ll make a post just of pictures, like I’ve done before. It seems easier that way to get more pictures in. I am also going to write a separate post about our travels post-Blenheim because that in itself deserves a blog of its own! Looking forward to getting home!