Arriving at the Lexington Horse Centre

After a couple more down time days at Fancy Hill Farm, Oslo and I have arrived at the Lexington Horse Centre about 15 minutes from Fancy Hill farm. After being in a turnout for the last few days, Oslo had shell shock when he was restricted to his concrete stall (everyone on the team has been calling it the horse penitentiary). After a workout in the large indoor arena and a long walk, Oslo has begun to settle in, but is still a bit of a nervous wreck at times. Hopefully he will continue to relax.

Lexington Horse Centre is HUGE. It has about 10 huge barns and then over 15 competition rings. The only thing that is not very nice is the fact that it is all pavement, hardly any grazing:(

I have met all the Young Riders now and the last member of the Junior team - Jamie (Tom Dvorak's student). We have decorated our alleyway with everything you can possibley think of that is covered with maple leafs or the word Canada. We have balloons, flags on the cars, golf carts, and stalls, towels, beach balls, and even water toys!! Decorating was a riot! Gillian Southerland has also arrived (she coaches the Young Rider Danielle McKinnon). We met Gillian in Ottawa last year and I totally love her. She is so much fun, down to earth, and encouraging. She is an amazing rider herself, missing the Pan Am Games do to an unfortunate circumstance. Hopefully though we will see her on the Canadian team at the next Olympics!

Tomorrow is the opening ceremonies and the dreaded jog. No matter how sound you think your horse is, your heart is still in throat as you approach the vet for the jog. Hopefully all will go well for the Canadian team. We also have specific jackets and scatfs we have to wear for the jog so we all look like a team. Oslo and I are the 4th ones to jog for the Juniors, with the other three of our team members going before.

We all have bright green wrist bands that we have to wear to get into the barns, and only 2 people from each team are allowed to be in the barn between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am (when the barns are technically closed). Today we also got a bunch of clothing and promotion items from the Canadian team sponsors, such as a cooler for Oslo, a young rider jacket, shirt, hats, etc. Dad thought we should have gotten a few tanks of diesel instead!!