Sept 24
The cliff notes for today would be: exhausting day was spent in Kentucky!!! We packed up the trucks early so that we wouldn’t need to go back to the hotel to check out. While we were packing, it was really rather a nice diversion to watch Amelia, the 6 week old donkey filly, harassing one of her sheep. This baby donkey, who is not much bigger than a sheep herself, lives with her mother and a flock of sheep in a paddock across from the building in which we have been staying. She is adorable and is spoiled by all the visitors to the village. When she is not being scratched by one of her fans, she is either nursing, sleeping or terrorizing the sheep. She buzzes them at a gallop kicking or chases them around the paddock. Fortunately they are well padded!!

We were on the horses riding by 7:30, finished packing and loaded the horses for the trip to the horse park. Dave went directly to the farm where Rev is now staying to help with training road crew and he was busy there all afternoon. It was sort of sad to leave Shaker Village. They have been incredibly hospitable and made us welcome. Those of us following the horse trailers left in search of the “athlete’s entrance” where we were supposed to leave the vehicles and walk/shuttle to the barn to help unload. However, the drive which should have taken an hour took 2 hours and we ended up doing U turn after U turn. For some reason, there was quite a delay getting the horses into the park and we ended up making it in time to help unload in spite of all the delays. We got them situated and then spent the majority of the afternoon organizing the stable area and going to meetings.

Jeff Pauley put tungsten nails in Harmon’s shoes. They protrude enough that he rocks a little when walking on macadam, but I think it will be a lot safer for road crossing. The goal is to get grip without too much grab! Heather Hoyns arrived today. We saw her at Shaker Village and then she and her friend Lindsay went to the crew training (with Dave). We listed her as one of our unofficial grooms…I haven’t figured out exactly how it happened, but it appears as though some competitors have more than 2 official grooms. We only have 2 (Dave and Steve), and since Heather is an unofficial groom, we couldn’t get her into the venue. She waited at the trailer all afternoon/evening while we tried to figure it out. Ultimately, Vonita gave us passes into the park for unofficial grooms, so at least we were able to get them to Heather. Anyway, a long day of scrambling and not feeling that we got much done.

It is already 10:30 and am heading to bed!! Not sure I will have time to send another update until after the ride, but thanks for all the well wishes and emails. You all make me feel warm and fuzzyJ Wanted to list all of our supporters tonight, but will probably do that on the next one....
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