DAY 1: MONDAY TRAVEL DAY
Our goal was to pull out of the farm driveway at 5:30 a.m., and I gotta say that getting 6 horses and 6 horse girls organized and loaded on time was an impressive feat. It wasn't without some drama, because horses, but we were Aiken bound!
The drive was thankfully uneventful, other than raining the entire way. Driving through the mountains is .... hairy ... at times. But beautiful. It took us about 9ish hours, but wasn't bad thanks to some great podcasts to pass the time. I recommend Dr. Death, Down the Hill and Dying for Sex. (Sensing a theme here hmmm)
We gave the horses several breaks to rest, and for us to pee and re-up on caffeine.
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| Guess who joined us!! Liz and Royale! |
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| Pit stop |
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| tunnels |
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| Smokies |
We ended up pulling into the gorgeous and peaceful Jumping Branch Farm sometime after 3 p.m. Sort of a long story, but Hampton and another stablemate ended up getting shod very shortly after we arrived because our farrier just happened to be in Aiken and the boys were about due so ...
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| Hampton at the end of the aisle getting shod. He was so good, although bewildered. |
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| Aiken has a bunch of these dirt roads. Almost all of the farms are off such roads. |
Hampton was probably wondering why we drove so long for a farrier appointment.
Some of the other gals went on an easy hack that afternoon, but I decided just to let Hampton rest. He had some muscle fatigue from the trailer ride and I noticed he was shaking some in the trailer so I felt like he should probably just chill. (He stopped trembling within 60 seconds of stopping) Plus, as the elder statesman of the group, he does not need to work out tension or nervousness. He settled in just fine.
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| oh Hai! |
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| He liked the window accommodations |
Plus the next day we had a big dressage lesson to rest up for!
A great thing about Jumping Branch is that they had small paddocks you could use, so Hampton got to at least spend the nights outdoors with stepbrother Royale.
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| Classic Hampton |
We ended up back at our super cool AirBnB, had dinner, drank too much and crashed.
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| The AirBnB was a farm with resident horses and THIS THING |
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| It was so cute! |
A long day but a week of adventure awaits.
I really want to listen to Dr Death but my friends have told me I am not allowed because I am ALREADY AFRAID OF DRs! (Thanks for the other recommendations though!)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great start to your adventure! Can't wait to read more. Aiken is somewhere I would love to visit, especially if I could bring the horses!
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