Eight hours and counting! The goal is to be on the road by six o'clock tomorrow morning. Sylvie Fraser and her coach Janine Little arrived this afternoon to join our convoy for the trip down to Kentucky. Sylvie is a Junior and will be part of the Western Canadian Junior Team. The horse she will be riding at the Championships is Tango. We will be driving separate truck and trailers due to Tango being a bit difficult to haul with other horses and to give everyone more space to store hay and shavings.
All members of the convoy include mom, papa, Lientje (the newest member of the family - mini dachshund puppy), Sylvie, Janine, and Oswald (Janine's taco bell dog. Not to be confused with Oslo!).
We plan to travel down to the Trans Canada highway and make our way over to Estevan, Saskatchewan. Estevan will be our first lay over and then Wednesday morning we will cross the border into North Dakota. Next stop Minneapolis, onward to Indianapolis (aren't the Americans original with their city names?!?!) for the third night. On the fourth day, Friday, July 23rd we hope to arrive in Lexington, Kentucky late afternoon.
I am very excited and will likely not sleep much tonight. That is alright though, the important ones that need sleep tonight are papa and Janine, the drivers, and the special guys, Oslo and Tango. This is a long road trip, but we stop approximately every four hours to let the horses rest and for papa to grab some cheezies. We stop at rest stops or big truck stops along the highways. We will often take Oslo out of the trailer for a while to eat some grass and stretch his legs if the rest stop is far enough from the highway. It is important to keep Oslo healthy and relaxed as much as possible. We also have Oslo on ulcer medicine this time for the duration of the trip to help prevent him from developing any uclers due to the stress of hauling and competition.
Before I leave to finish packing I want to specially thank all my sponsors, family, and friends for being so encouraging and helping me along on my journey. Oslo and I could have never made this far without you guys!!! We will do our best to make everyone back home proud! Here is a short note that some of my best friends wrote for me. I hope it brings as much inspiration to everyone back home as it did to me!
"Only as high as I reach can I grow.
Only as far as I seek can I go.
Only as deep as I look can I see.
Only as much as I dream can I be."
KENTUCKY HERE WE COME! =)
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