Tuesday, 12 August 2014
This past week I flew to CA for the Tevis. I landed in San Francisco on Thurs morning. Hillorie was all smiles when she came and picked me up. We drove back to her place and finished the last minute packing. The plan was to go drop off her young horse to trainer, Mark Schuerman (the trainer of this years Tevis mount Hadeia), and while we were there we would make sure all of my tack was in order, then we would go drop the trailer at Foresthill.
We loaded up Hillorie's big, young chestnut and hit the road. There was a bit of traffic. The weather was super, but then again pretty much anywhere North of Hell would be an improvement to Florida's weather this time of year.
(On a side note, the Easyboot team booted up my mount on Wed for me in the Easyboot Glue ons. I love that group. Easycare has done a lot for the Tevis as well as for my horses personally.)
We got up to Mark's around 2 or so. He was there as well as my good firend Nicole Chappel. We all got organized and of course I had to check out how Hadeia looked. He looked perfect! His body weight was nice and his coat was shiney. I was now getting a bit more excited about the race that would be in less than 2 days.
After going over a few details, Hillorie and I left. We went for a late lunch at the Flower Garden Inn. We had a chicken salad to die for, it had all kinds of goodness in it, including different types of berries.
When we were done we headed up to Foresthill, hitting up the grocery store on the way. We parked in our regular area at Foresthill. By now it was probably around 5 pm. We were burnt out with driving so we decided to stay in Auburn that night, rather than driving back the hour plus to Hillorie's house to then turn around first thing and come right back up. We had a lot of fun catching up and hanging out.
On Friday morning Hillorie ran a few errands and then we met back up and went to Echo Valley Ranch to grab a few items. We had fun goofing around in there.
The drive up to Robie was great, the mountains are so beautiful. We stopped in Truckee for a bit, while getting something cold to drink we sat in a really cool cafe/restaurant and watched the locals go by.
We pulled into Robie around 2. Mark thought he would arrive around then. I checked in and looked at what the vendors had to offer, all the while running into friends. Great to see everyone.
When Mark pulled in we helped him get all set up. Hadeia was excited, he knew where he was. He has done the Tevis the past 2 years with Mark, placing 11th and 7th.
Hadeia (registered name, French Open) is a 14 yr old, 14.3 gelding. He was gelded as a late 8 yr old. He ran on the flat track before his endurance career, running an amazing 89 times. His legs are very clean and tight, he's a beast...
Read more here:
http://reynoldsracing.us/heathers_blog/view/467/tevis
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