Day One!

It has started!!
We had lessons first thing this morning and Chloe felt amazing! All the other girls came back reporting the same thing, I'm so excited for our team! We then spent our time getting ready for the trot up. We had some wardrobe malfunctions and ultimately a couple of us had to be sewn into our skirts, but all was well because in the end all the horses passed and that is what matters!! After the jog I walked my two star coarse for the first time ever and I know i have asked this many times before but cant we please just fast forward to cross country!?! The track looks amazing! It is a very galloping coarse and has some good questions and I honestly cannot wait to ride it! We also picked our order of go for the weekend and Natalia Gurmankin is first out, she is going by the name trail blazer now! Next out we have Tessa Becket and third out is Me and Chloe. I'm planning on going to the barn extra early to ride once before and the rest of the time will be dedicated to bathing her, I swear she plans on getting extra dirty the night before dressage. Today we also had the opening ceremonies and it was awesome getting to walk in the grand stand arena with all me team mates representing California. The competition has started my friends and i'm excited to trot down that center line tomorrow. For now though im going to go visualize my test some and SLEEP!!
Xoxo Kelly and Chloe

This is her giving me a dirty look. Braiding, FUN!
CHLOE IS CLEAN! This is also the skirt i was sewn into. It worked!
The worlds best groom and coach, aka my parents :)

Natalia and groom Amanda Sanchez, vet Laura Werner. Getting ready for her jog!

Getting ready for opening ceremonies, Go area VI!!!
The whole clan
Bounce into water and it goes to the turtle in the water. That is also a Styrofoam jump in. If a horse hangs a leg it will supposedly crumble.
Double corners
so many gallop fences, I love it!
Kelly Loria and Maddie Reeb and their beautiful horses!
The coach and Chef

Finishing touches...before it all begins!!!

Our area VI mascots!! My poor tortured dogs...
Area VI
Coach Dayna Lynd Pugh and Chef Shannon Lilley
Our decorated golf cart and curtains!!
Decorating the golf carts
Chloe and the young rider Antares stall guards
Area VI!!!
Today it actually started feeling like we were at a competition. Our coach, Dayna Lynd Pugh, our chef Shannon Lilley, our vet Laura Werner and our two grooms Scott Kuhlman and Amanda arrived! We rode early and had lessons. Chloe felt great! We then went on another long walk and I swear once you think you have seen the whole property, you haven't! I think maybe i got lost a few times, I was approached by more then one person saying "excuse me miss you seem to have lost your way." Whoops. The weather started out nice and sunny and a bit warm and within ten minutes it was lightning and thunderstorms. It alternated like that throughout the day, so different then California!! We spent the rest of the day hanging the rest of our banners, decorating our golf carts and checking out the shopping vendors (I'm guilty!). We had in-barns today and all the horses looked great. We also had our first mandatory meeting and it made me that much more anxious for the competition to start! Howard Simpson gave a great little talk. To sum it up he said that "yes some of us will receive medals this weekend and some of us may not have such good luck, but we have all worked so hard to get to this point and with that said we are all champions." It was so true. Looking at everyone on the area VI team, we have worked so hard to get to this point as I'm sure everyone has. The fact that we are here says a lot.
I left Chloe a little earlier tonight and I'm sure she is relieved to not have me there fussing over her every second. I think this may be one of my only chances to get to sleep at a decent time so im going to take advantage of it!!
Tomorrow we will have lessons again in the morning and then we have our trot up! That means the competition will have begun!! I will keep you all posted on the jog and hopefully have some good pictures :)
xoxo Kelly and Chloe

Settling In..

Today was all about getting everything in order and making sure the horses were getting settled nicely. Chloe looked good this morning, maybe a little tired but who can blame her? We took a long walk first thing this morning to try and beat the heat and I had the best time touring the place. Chloe was pretty calm and I couldn't believe how nice everyone at this facility is. It was hard trying to pick an arena to ride in, there were so many!!! Chloe then got a bath and got to relax in her stall. I hung up a couple fans that keep it pretty enjoyable for her! We got our tack rooms set up and hung the majority of our "Area VI" posters up. We also purchased a turn out so we kept rotating the horses throughout the day to graze and stretch their legs. I rode her again in the afternoon for another nice, long walk and I have to say the weather today was completely tolerable! The horses all look great and tomorrow we start lessons. I will try and get pictures of the barn isle and facility up tomorrow! I cannot wait for the competition to start!!! I Have been able to scope out some of the cross country and if i had it my way Chloe and I would just fast forward to Saturday! For now though we have checked into our hotel room and Natalia and I are hitting the hay! I hope you all enjoyed the airplane pictures and stay posted for more of the horse park! It truly is amazing...
Goodnight everyone!
Kelly and Chloe

AIRPLANE PICTURES!! (Start at the bottom to the top...)

Maybe this is why he runs away.....
The horses never touched the tarmac. They put a ramp through all the trailers. The horses would walk from the plane to the farthest trailer and when that was filled they would move to the second farthest and then the closest.



Tex Sutton
All of our stuff unloaded in Kentcuky. Are we having fun yet???
You can see behind Chloe the rows of other horses. They had three horses per row and a space to walk in front of each row. It was fun trying to guess what discipline each horse was
Chloe and her airplane buddy Sounder. They eventually had to put up a wall between the two. Chloe wasn't his biggest fan.
I got to be with her :)
Chloe in her airplane slot. They were about the size of a trailer slot.
Madison Reebs horse being loaded
Chloe planted her feet right there and said "no thanks guys" They were very patient with my clean stubborn horse
All of our stuff. We had to load it onto the plane ourselves too! We had a lot according to the pilot...woops
Area VI!



Chloe was not pleased about her 1 AM photo shoot. She is clean though!!
Jennie Brannigan and I representing west coast!

Airplane Ride and Arriving at the Horse Park!!

Well it turns out that 2:00 AM is a very lovely hour in Temecula Ca. It was about 70 degrees and I didnt have much of a chance to acknowledge how tired I was due to the fact that I was going to be loading my horse onto an airplane in less then two hours. The night before I really had all intentions of going to sleep at 8. At that time though I was not aware that a friend of mine Jennie Brannigan would be stopping by. Quickly my 8 o clock plan turned into an all nighter. It was great catching up. She was the one who originally found Chloe for me and also she is a gold medalist from a previous young rider year. 2:00 came quickly and I really was like a kid the night before Christmas, SO EXCITED! After spending a good amount of time just getting Chloe into the trailer my excitement quickly turned into nerves. What if she didn't load on the plane?! Then what?!?! My mom must have sensed my nerves for she texted me at 2:45 in the morning wanting to know everything. We drove to the airport, five horses in the trailer and five extremely sleepy girls in the truck and Terry, the man who so kindly volunteered to drive us. When we got there everything went so quickly. We unloaded all our stuff at an amazing speed and then quickly helped load it on the plane. Then it was the horses turn....Everyone loaded great!! ....except for Chloe. I have to give credit to Tex Sutton, they were so patient and made her feel completely comfortable and slowly she decided to leap on the ramp and then preceed to deer hop all the way to the top. (I got some good pictures!) Once on the plane we had to remain seated and couldnt see our horses until we were in the air. They were normal airplane seats and they did serve us Jack in the Box breakfast, how do I keep getting so lucky?! Once the plane leveled out I went to go be with Chloe. Two bags of carrots went quickly! Its amazing how they packed them in, at least twenty horses were on the plane and it was rows of three. Chloe seemed pretty content until landing and I don't blame her! The handlers let me be with her during landing, and let me tell you standing up while landing is not the most pleasant thing! The flight was freezing cold just like everyone had told me and my 12 layers did not seem like enough until we exited the plane and I was greeted with 90 degree weather and plenty of humidity!! We unloaded all our stuff and repacked it into the trailer that would take them to the horse park. If you haven't noticed a theme in these blogs..packing, jack in the Box and keeping Chloe clean are the main ones! The horses went directly form the airplane to the trailer and Natalia, Tessa and I got situated in the truck that would take them to the horse park. Well after the driver convinced us he knew a short cut then proceeded to get lost, make tiny u-turns, talk about his boss who was his soon to be ex wife, and blast the Indy 500 race on the radio....we arrived!!!! All the horses looked great getting off the van! Chloe was excited about all the grass and it was good to see my dad. He had the stalls all ready for us and helped us set up. I'm pretty lucky!
I returned to the camp site with my dad and was extremely excited to see my dog, avocado! I was greeted with a leash and a collar attached...but no dog. After walking around and yelling "avocado!" (imagine how awkward that is) I soon discovered he was smarter than all of us and made his way into the camp grounds air conditioned office.
I left Chloe with a lot of food and a stall full of shavings! She deserves a good nights sleep :)
Now if you are still reading all of this and have reached this point it is time to share the bad news. I dont have my card reader for my camera! So the only cool part about this post (the pictures) wont be up until tomorrow! But I promise it will be first thing in the morning!!!!!! I got some pretty amazing plane ones! Now it is my turn to sleep!
xoxo Kelly and Chloe

More pictures!

CHLOE IS CLEAN!!!! for now...



The Team! Tessa Becket, Coach Dayna Lynd Pugh, Natalia Gurmankin, Kelly Loria, Me, and Madi Reeb

This is the nice man who is driving us at 2 AM!

Love these ladies!

Area VI Young Riders!!!

PACKED AND READY!

My morning could not have started off better! Ihop breakfast and a trip to Walmart. You are all jealous I know it! After that My mom taught Natalia before heading back to norther California. Chloe went on a nice relaxing trail ride with all her airplane buddies. The rest of the day was dedicated to loading everyones things into the trailer that will be taking us to the airport at the lovely hour of 2:30 AM. Who knew four riders could fill up a trailer with so much stuff!! Terry who owns the farm we are staying at has kindly offered to take us to the airport. 2:30 is not a pretty hour, an hour that should not exist in my book. A special thanks goes out to him! We packed, unpacked, packed some more and still have a bit more. A break was much needed!
About mid day Margie showed up and handed out more team stuff which was really awesome. We got all our team shirts, hats, jackets, and saddle pads it was ridiculously exciting! Then we faced the problem of more packing! Pizza was in order for dinner and then yet again another walmart trip. Lets just say I have been eating very well and they know me pretty well at walmart!
Chloe got another bath, poor gray pony! Of coarse it was followed by many carrots, a poor attempt to try and make her forget how much she despises those baths.
Tomorrow we are up at 2 in the morning and loading at around 2 30ish. I hear the airlines serve breakfast! Has anyone caught onto the fact that I really enjoy my meals. I do I do!!!
I hear the plane is also as freezing as the antartic. Its an odd concept to have to layer on all these clothes only to land in Kentucky to be greeted with 100 degree weather. Did I mention that part? I hear the humidity is equally as bad. Maybe then Chloe will like baths!!!
I know I keep saying this, but I am so excited! We have a great group of girls going and parents as well.
My dad arrived today in Kentucky at the horse park and made it in great timing! He claims that he gave my dog away to a kid at a gas station im choosing to ignore that comment. When I asked how it was all he could say was hot. I asked if it was pretty and he still responded "hot". I guess soon enough I will see that for myself!
Im off now to go and give Chloe one more walk before she sleeps and then my turn, after I pack some more of coarse!
Here are some pictures of the day
!