Less than a week to go!!
Roll Call! Who all is going to the drive?!?
I will be there Tuesday through Sunday with a miniature (the Mighty Rusty) and my fjord (Nelina)! I’d love to meet some fellow COTHers!
{Waving}
Me & Bugs will make a triumphant return to HHP - along with several of my one local club’s members who have been going since they were invited to Lexington many years ago to demo driving & then had run of the place.
Since I treated myself to a CT at HHP mid-September, budget allows me to go to the Drive Thurs-Sun.
Must not miss the Mimosa Drive :winkgrin:
I am looking forward to seeing you, The Mighty Rusty (Bugs’ Hero) & Nelina again.
Just got my stall assignment today & I am in Barn J, I see you are in L, so we will trek over to see you.
Anyone else???
I know this is a S-L-O-W Response forum, but Geesh! 
Guess it’s just you 'n me representing COTH 
Psssst:
Club members & I are staying at Comfort Inn - sneak over & join us for the free breffy that trumps the sorry excuse @ Red Roof. Bonus: Jabba The Huttess* does not work the front desk at Comfort 
*I have stories…
Have friends going, but not us. They are also very excited about attending, packing things as we speak. Horse washing will be last minute, we are getting a lot of rain , causing lots of mud, no keeping them clean. Hope the good weather happens as predicted fo all your activities. 4 inches of rain since yesterday, but we are uphill from the river, so water is rushing off. Not flat like the Horse Park. Water hazards should be full for training!! Take his swimmees for flotation. Ha ha Temps supposed to warm up some too, probably even warmer than here. Fly stuff will be needed. Ours have really gotten fuzzy with cold nights last week, now will get sweaty with that hair in the warm temps.
Have a great time. We expect full reports of what we missed when you return home!
Haha. I don’t eat the breakfast at Red Roof either… there’s conveniently a Hardees between Red Roof and the horse park and I LOVE Hardees… I’m from Indiana originally, we have hardly any Hardees here in Ohio… I have breakfast covered for the week… LOL. Sometimes I share my tatoes with Finn and the extra bread with a couple ponies.
I had both ponies body clipped a couple weeks ago. The fjord, though, is predicting a cold winter and insists on continuing her epic fluff up. It’s supposed to be low 80’s! Yay!!! I do have all the fly stuff covered, when I was there in the spring, it was quite buggy.
I packed most of my stuff yesterday, I was pretty excited with my new 2+1 trailer that I could easily fit 2 carts, 2 harness trunks, and 5 bales of hay in the back compartment. 
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Hah! All “working” fjords are approaching their 2nd clip job!
I clipped Xan on Labor Day weekend, the week before his first HDT and the only real question is will I give in and clip him this weekend, or NEXT weekend, which is the weekend before we head down to Camp Black Prong. The clip V above his tail? You can no longer see it!
(Pro Tip - do not put any money on next weekend)
Have fun!
Being in the Southwest I have to live vicariously through you all. How goes the drive?
Our friend called, said it was HOT. 87F down there. Sunny, having a good time, wished they had body clipped before going. They have a big horse, not sure how fit he is for heat, so they can get in lots of driving time.
Hot DOWN there… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(I’m just hoping it really breaks before I head down to Black Prong in 2 weeks)
Here in Michigan, everything is either up or down. Didn’t think how it would look written out! Ha ha Pretty wimpy about heat myself, especially this summer with high humidity. So I was feeling sorry for them. Never considered “southern” hot weather temps. Probably not hot at all in comparison!
Yea, yesterday (Wednesday) was hot. For you southern folks, it was actually a record high at 87 degrees. High humidity to go with it. It didn’t really slow me down personally, because I’m slightly insane. It was much cooler and rainier today, not bad rainy, just in the AM, everything else went around thankfully.
Todays exciting activities included the driving derby and pooch parade (aka carriage dog where everybody wins and your pooch can be stuffed)!
goodhors, I did time in Saginaw, so I appreciated the “down is not as far down as it could be” but geez the weather just won’t quit this year… (although I’m sure when it does it will skip fall completely)
We aren’t much hotter here but the humidity has been epic
Late reporting, but it was more fun than s/b legal 
110 entries! so at least 150+ horses as there were several teams & even a 4-In-Hand of Fell Ponies.
@kris0227 rightly reported Hot & Humid, but enough breeze to (mostly) keep the gnats off.
I arrived Thursday afternoon & never did summon the energy to harness & drive - playing my Elderly Card here.
Met up with my local Club members, chatted & chillaxed until dinnertime.
Friday I drove with Club members & got back just in time to run the Derby.
Stayed IN the cart this time & due to Pilot Error added 20sec to optimal time by missing the B section of the 2nd Gate.
D’OH!
I knew I fluffed it as we drove past & circling round got it right, but paid in Time.
Bugs was The Little engine That Could, but it was hot, he was fluffy & I opted out of doing the course a 2nd time.
Instead he got a shower & I did what I do best - visited with other drivers & sat.
Club wanted Pro photog to take a group pic so we got dressed in our finery - apron & hat - & I lead Bugs (again: too lazy to re-harness) to Cones where we had planned to meet.
Joke on me, they decided to move pic to the water hazard.
I was not looking forward to more walking, when a friend asked if Bugs would pony.
Turned out the answer is Yes, so he trotted behind & I rode to the site.
We hope to see the group shot in Driving Digest
Dinner with Club was fun & we then caravanned to Columbus to have ice cream at Zaharako’s - opened in 1909 and still boasting the lovely marble soda fountain.
Saturday Club members left after the Mimosa Drive - lovely day, fun to see people & horses all gussied up.
Driving back we got separated and I ended up driving Bugs home alone.
Which was fine - his only “misbehavior” was to call indignantly at being left Alone.
I don’t think he realizes what a wussy little whinny he has…
He just trotted on & even ignored the Mounted Shooting contest being held in the covered arena.
Saturday night was Wine & cheese redux from Friday & a movie about a Coast-to-Coast caravan from Oregon to Florida.
2 attendees were in the movie - not sure where they joined the caravan.
Sunday met up w/ @kris0227 & drove with her & her Fjord mare Nelina. We stayed on the shady trails & played with some of the Marathon obstacles.
Bugs kept right up. I think he wanted to impress the Tall Blonde Chick with the punked-out mane. :rolleyes:
I had hitched my SUV & loaded stuff in the trailer beforehand - I travel pretty light.
Loaded cart and sat a bit while Bugs relaxed after another hosedown.
I left around noon & Traffic Gods were with me - light all the way home.
Surprise!
Got home to at least 20F cooler & rainy.
You can view us on the Picsofyou.com site - I am #299
My suggestion is to save your pennies & move Heck & High Water to come next May!
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What @goodhors said! If you have ever considered going, make the plans and just do it! You will have a blast! The first year I went, I didn’t go the entire time and regretted it! I now go for the whole week every year (except last year when I went to Dressage Regionals which was a bucket list thing).
I ran the driving derby… 4 times with my mini, the Mighty Rusty, who turned in a blistering 1:37 time (faster than a dutch warmblood who did it at a full gallop, poetry in motion), I was pretty impressed with my little guy. He absolutely adores the derby and would get excited anytime we got near it. I ran it a couple of times with my fjord, but only at a trot, she got a time of 3:25. It was fun with her because she’s only just recently got the hang of making tighter turns and steering nicely at a trot. I have the mini’s video of his fastest run if people want to see it, I’ll youtube and link it here.
The trails were beautiful! There was a lovely trail through the woods that had stuffed critters, the game was to find all the animals in the right order and write them down, which is impossible to do without a passenger, maybe next year I’ll convince someone to ride along and write for me. Haha!
There was a trail to the POW Chapel, I did this trail in the spring, but not in the fall. It’s a lovely drive, a total of 5 miles round trip.
The trail to and yes, through, the closed golf course was a lot of fun too. How many people can say they’ve gotten to use a golf course for the purpose they should have?!?
And the last trail was through all the obstacles. The wooded trail and this trail were set up like the Indiana CDE complete with KM markers for timing purposes.
We had the use of 8 obstacles including two water obstacles, many of them were even gated! The water obstacles had the marathon obstacles set up in them, but weren’t gated.
There was a fantastic cones course that included a bridge as well!
If you want to see my pics, they’re on picsofyou.com, numbers 313 (mini) and 356 (fjord).
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Thanks ladies. Great reports!
I saw your pic on the NFHR fb page, very cute!
Hopefully next year it will be back in KY so me (and my friend) can attend, but for now we are headed to Camp Black Prong in FL which is going to be a serious amount of fun!
As far as I’m aware, it’s in Indiana for the foreseeable future. Kentucky was raising costs outside of what the National Drive could afford and our driving area was shrinking. We have WAY more places to drive in Indiana and it was a lot nicer than the last time I went in Kentucky. We had 8 obstacles in Indiana (versus 2 in Kentucky) and 2 water obstacles (versus only 1 in Kentucky) and Indiana takes really great care of us, everyone is so nice and the maintenance crews are super attentive!
Thanx for updating.
