I feel so thankful and lucky to have been the recipient of one of NEDA’s amazing scholarships to work with my trainer, Kathy Connelly, this winter in Wellington.
This was my first ever trip to the promise land, and here are some of my takeaways in case you too are planning on making a first trip down to paradise.
-Everything in Wellington looks the exact same, it is all a very pretty and well planned cluster of fancy strip malls that they call things like “marketplaces” and they all look identical. For two weeks I had to use my GPS to drive the ten minutes to the barn and back, and the one time in that period I was sure I could do it by myself, I got us hopelessly lost.
-Southern Florida is essentially the tropics, and since everything doesn’t die in the soil in the winter like it does up here in the frozen Arctic, it’s basically filled with things that make your horse’s legs blow up like balloon animals. Five of the nine horses we brought down had something go wrong with their legs, three of which needed the vet to come out. Anti-fungal shampoos are an absolute must, and I really like this product called Wound Wonder that you can get from your vet. You really do have to towel dry your horses legs after every shower, and use that anti fungal shampoo- a lot.
-Hay is as expensive as you have heard rumors about it being, with prices ranging from $15-30 a bale for timothy. If you’re bringing a trailer down I highly recommend hating your life in the short term and packing it to the gills with hay, which of course will result in also hating your life when you arrive and have to unload dozens of heavy bales.
-Palm trees make a tremendous amount of noise in the wind, which half of the horses we brought down hated in the beginning. The palm fronds that fall are also made of snakes and lions and horses REALLY hate those. Proceed with caution.
-If your horse is a perfect baby angel who can go into any venue at any time disregard the following advice. However, if you have any kind of sensitive snowflake like I do, I would strongly recommend against having your first show in Florida at Global, and building on that I would also say that you should really not show two weeks after arriving. Be smart like my friend Bobby Murray and spend the first month or two training, and then go out and show and do great. Don’t be impulsive and short sighted like me and show your $1 special needs horse at Global 1 and get eliminated because they won’t go down the centerline *insert face palm emoji*
-The two venues we competed at were Global in Wellington, and white fences in loxahatchee, and they could not be more different. Global is in Wellington proper, and it has absolutely gorgeous permanent stabling most of the time- except if you are unlucky enough to accidentally choose a weekend that a hunter derby is going on and get booted to the standard temporary stabling. There are three competition rings side by side, and for warm up there is one large ring, and then one 20 x 60 warm up at the entrance to the ring. The latter is not for the faint of heart as it usually has 5-10 FEI riders executing movements in every possible space, and forcing you to ride with the bravado of a gladiator. Getting to compete at Global was one of the most amazing, overwhelming, and humbling experiences I have ever had. Everytime you warm up for a test there are numerous Olympians in the ring with you, and every horse there is truly of exceptional quality- like mind blowing nice movement AND they have a brain. Going into the season I knew the level of competition was going to be much higher, but I am not sure anything could have prepared me for the reality of how amazing every pair is.
-White fences is much more laid back, and the caliber of riding is still elevated, but not to the point where you want to give up, go home, crawl into your bed and never leave it again. It has primarily temporary stabling, but as someone with very bad anxiety surrounding pulling and parking my trailer it is exceptionally easy to get in and out of and a very enjoyable day show. The smart person move I learned is to do this show first, and then do global. Stay tuned for if it is a lesson I actually apply for next season.