(The hills from whence Chatt Hills gained its name.)Currently, I'm sitting in a hotel in the middle of heaven. Did I say heaven? I mean Fairburn, GA, where it is a whopping 63 degrees outside, overcast and drizzling. For those of you bad at math, that's 40+ degrees less than what we've been suffering through in Texas for the past two months. To be fair, the weather has finally broken in Texas, but only yesterday.
The flight this morning was relatively painless, other than a few bumps of turbulence. Of course, everyone jumps up and pulls their suitcases out of the overhead compartments the moment the plane is stopped, which is always amusing. I often want to ask them why they are in such a hurry to stand around and wait. Sounds like a HJ show to me. Me, I'm happy enough to stay seated in the 22nd row until the 20th row has filed out.
Then, my GPS on my lovely Droid thought it would be fun to take a detour around the seedier side of Atlanta. Always fun to see new places! Ponies are arriving later tonight. I've already heard via FB (ah, the wonders of the communication era) that there was an incident with a blown-out tire, a grass median, and the skillful slaloming (yes, that's a word) of a huge rig between several light poles. Luckily, by all accounts all horses/humans/dogs are perfectly fine, so that's a relief. These cross-country trailering rides can be so stressful!
As a result, the ponies have an ETA of 11 pm instead of 8pm, so I trekked out to the show grounds to scope out the stabling situation. After playing the stable shuffle with the Gold Chip horses as Heather relayed her wishes over the phone, I got to work putting shavings in the stalls of the eight horses on the rig. Now the ponies will have nice, thick shavings to look forward to.
I have to mention that I was very much impressed by the Chattahoochie Hills facility. The main barn, of course, is absolutely stunning as you first get past the forest. Then, as you round the gravel road, brilliantly green rolling hills sprawl before you, dotted with cross country jumps. It is stunning, as I said, and the photos I took barely do it justice. It is not inconceivable at all to imagine Chatt Hills hosting a top class four star one day.
Good luck and I'll see you there! I'll be reporting, not riding, but I'm excited all the same :)
ReplyDeleteYay! Excited to see you! If you have a chance, stop by tent 1-3 and say hi!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! I can't wait to hear all the details!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Georgia! It is UNIMAGINABLE that the temp is 67 degrees - which would require a fleece for me at the barns! Our temps have been a mere 5 degrees cooler than yours in Texas all summer, so this is amazing! But a blessing to all of the competitors and horses.... Good luck and let us know all are well after the trailering incident!
ReplyDeleteI also just read your post "for want of a hoof". I assume you read and follow Eventing a Go Go..... same concern if different approaches.