Great News from Galway Downs - TJ Drake

About 8 months of planning, 3 changes of departure/arrival time, money for memberships, travelling expenses and entry fees, thousands of long hard hours of training all winter and we finally arrived at Galaway Downs in Temecula California. 

It took 3 full days of travelling, 3 states, 3 maps, around 6 bags of beef jerky and about 37 hours. 

We traveled through all sorts of country and saw incredible things, torrential downpours from our neighbours in Langley, a friendly boarder crossing that had our fearless leader run back through the pouring rain not once, but twice to make sure all our paperwork was in order. 

We saw endless miles of rolling green hills, fields of orchards, gridlock 4 lane freeway traffic to desert lands, some unsanitary rest stops and way too many windmills, overpasses and high rise bridges for Sara's comfort zone. 

Being locked up in the trailer for that long...both horse and rider were all getting a bit stir crazy so a cross country school at an overnight stop in Fresno made everyone excited for our last leg of the trip!  

We arrived at Galaway in Temecula around dusk, got the horses settled, and we were done!!! After a last minute entry Sara was able to get both a dressage lesson and a jump lesson with our Canadian Eventing Team Coach,  Clayton Fredricks. Sara and Sloan McQuick worked on getting more trot, straightness and a longer neck in dressage. Jumping-a piece of cake for Femika-they worked on some canter poles, flying changes and Sara sitting a bit straighter. 

After a few days at Galaway for schooling, a shower for ourselves and lots of preparation. Dressage day arrived! Sara had an early ride time and her test proved to be accurate, quiet and relaxed-landing her with scores in the middle of the pack. Not too shabby for us Canadian girls! 

Saturday is the exciting cross country phase-lets face it-it's why we all event! The start time for Sara was in the heat of the day! The course proved to be smooth with just the right amount of "questions" for the division! Femika sailed through with no time, moving them up in the placings. 

She left the finish hungry for more and cooled out well. It takes us grooms hours to get everyone settled after cross country. The horses always come first so after bathing, whirly boots, ice, poultice, wraps, feed, and a fresh bed of shavings we cleaned up tack, the mess, ourselves...dinner for us comes around 8:30 if we are lucky!

Show Jump! Another early start for us and another day of braiding!!! That means we are in the running a for ribbon! Femika loves the show jump fences and hates to touch them so a clear round in time moves them up again!

A 3rd place finish at our first event of the year sets us up for a great season ahead! What an exciting way to start our 2015 year! As fun as it's been we are all anxious to get home to Lanzelot, sleep in our own beds, see our families and put the suitcase away...until the next one!

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