Hurricane...who??

So, all last week my friend Kelsey and I prepared the barn for Hurricane Earl. Word on the playground was that the barn floods massively since we are right across the road from the James River. Nice. So I spent most of the week tying doors shut, making sure boards were secure and storing jumps. On top of that I took all my tack home, just in case it did flood above the tack stall level. Thursday afternoon we decided to pull the horses (Olly and Ben) out and trailer them to higher ground. It took three hours to get Ben in the trailer and by that time the barn reserving the stalls for us was tired of waiting. Crappy. So, we found the highest ground out of the three paddocks and stuck them in there. Where were the other horses that are at the Ft. Eiustis barn, you ask? Well let me tell you. They decided, against my judgement, that it would be better to lock the horses in their stalls and close the barn. Yes, you read right. All the other horses were in the barn...during a hurricane...with possible flooding. I did advise (my non-professional advice) that this was the most idiotic idea yet to enter my life. Fortunately, the hurricane was the lamest hurricane I have been in and we got less rain than a thunderstorm. WIN!! All the hard work for nothing. BUT, I would rather have it that way than the other. Next time...I will do the same thing. I will pack it all up like a Cat 5 is knocking down our door and hopefully it will yield the same result.

Getting ready to leave...or so he thought.

In the paddock the morning of Hurricane Earl.

Ben

Kelsey braving non-hurricane force winds!

It was windy though...

The James River (across from the stables).

Over the past week alot has changed. Olly and I have been doing more training for the upcoming horse trials. My boys went back to school so there is plenty of time for the BigRedHorse. Monday we did a 5 mile hack with trotting and cantering sets. Tuesday I gave him the day off (to rest and tend to DOMS) and I had to stay at the school for diabetes training. Wednesday we did another 5 mile hack and fit in a few galloping sets in addition to the trotting and cantering. He seemed to recover quite well, which makes me feel better because that means I have done a great job with keeping him in shape.
Today I set up a small hunter course(all jumps at 2'6") of eight jumps. He tackled that course like a champ! He got almost all our leads. It was great.



On a side note, here is a short video of what Olly and I do on our off time :)