5/31/11: Next Stop- SPRUCE MEADOWS!

So, the fun in foreign countries continues yet again with an adventure to Spruce Meadows! I've had a great two months back home in Georgia and tonight (at 3:00 am to be exact) we are starting the 2500-mile trek to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to compete at Spruce Meadows. Spruce is one of the most incredible competitions in the world! The show management makes sure that no one calls their six week circuit a "show." Instead, Spruce is known as a "tournament," where many of the best riders in the world, including Eric Lamaze; Beezie Madden; Will Simpson; Ben Maher and other famous Olympians come to try their luck. It is the most fun and exciting show my family goes to all year! The rings and all large grass fields with banks, grobs, ditches, water jumps, and other exciting natural obstacles. The small pub at the horse show, Time Faults (a very appropriate name!) has good food and drinks and creates a sense of community and fun at the tournament facility. There is also a mechanical bull at a western bar nearby that I am dying to try out!

Despite how excited I am about getting to Calgary, I am really dreading the drive. There is a less than seven hour countdown until we leave and I'm still not done packing! It seems that I always find an excuse not to start packing until the very last minute. I always regret procrastinating like this, but it seems I still never learn! It's hard to pack stuff for almost the entire summer (especially when going to a place where the weather changes thirty times a day and ranges from 90 degree heat to frigid snow and sleet). We have a whole caravan of vehicles driving together. My sister, Frances, and I are driving my Chevy Tahoe with a two-horse trailer behind it; my parents are driving the big red truck with the horse trailer; and my brother, Alex, and our two grooms, Ramon and James, are driving a Ford Excursion. It may seem like an excessive amount of people for only three vehicles, but driving 45 hours is no small feat! Hopefully we won't have any tire blowouts or other driving drama along the way!