a day out west!

Last week I delved into the idea of "collective intelligence" as one of the many benefits of this wonderful equestrian blogging community. Another huge benefit tho is the friends I've made through blogging. There are a lot of really cool people out there and it's been amazing to connect just by virtue of shared interests.

So as hinted at yesterday, I knew the moment work decided to send me to Sunny San Diego that I'd try to meet up with the SoCal blogger contingent.

familiar bay face to kick this thing off

Luckily everything worked out surprisingly well - I was able to tack a full day on to the end of my trip and catch the red eye home. Meanwhile, L Williams (whom I've now had the pleasure of meeting a few times in various cities on both coasts) was able to mostly free herself from work to act as activities coordinator for the day. Yay!

Thule dog is a good dog. also i've been mispronouncing her name in my head all along. whoops.

First up on the docket after my birdie-filled breakfast (as posted yesterday lol) was riding along with L over to Carey's house to pick her up and head out to the barn. Naturally this involved spending some quality time with Carey's lovely pups Thule and Reef too. Such good dogs!

Thule and Reef. gooood pups, also very handsome!

You may recall Carey recently blogged about a riding accident that left her with a pretty nasty broken leg. Bleh. No fun at all :( Having been there myself within recent memory (despite all efforts to block it out haha), I could definitely sympathize with the sheer exhaustion and overwhelming nature that comes with even the simplest tasks while on crutches.

speaking of handsome!!! it's Cosmo!!

Somewhat amazingly tho, Carey has a pretty awesome attitude about the injury. And was still in bright enough spirits to hang out for the day, yay! We first headed out to the barn where she keeps Cosmo. Who, by the way, this horse guys. He is such a character haha!

Big, gentle and friendly. But with a very definite sense about him like he knows how things are supposed to be done and expects everyone to do their jobs just so. lol.

and Dante! i love the progression of his expression here as L shuffles around that plastic cup, eventually grabbing it with her teeth. Dante was.... not so sure about that haha

Also I'm always basically fascinated by west coast barns. The horses live so differently from the typical arrangements here on the east coast. And yet they all seem to be happy, healthy and thriving all the same. Talk about an argument for the horse's general versatility haha!

reminded me of being back at charlie's old h/j barn with all the white pads and monograms

 After hanging out for a while with Cosmo and Carey and some of the other riders around the barn (including casually observing while two recent imports went through their paces), we dropped Carey off at Mary's Tack Store to move on to phase 2 of our "Get Emma Her Horsey Fix" agenda: meeting Dante!!

they had fancy machinery at the horse park too!

Naturally this also included a tour of the horse park where Dante lives - all the various arenas, buildings, show facilities, etc. It's a pretty cool place! The stalls look a little more similar to what you might find on the east coast - just everything is much more open to the elements (since, uh, it's San Diego. they don't really have elements lol).

giant baby pony crossing!

Dante is also just freakin adorable. It's been a long time since I've interacted with such a baby horse too. Most of my experience (tho not quite all) with younger horses is with ottbs. And let's face it, there's a HUGE difference between a ~4yo ottb who has had a job and has developed more physically, and a ~4yo wb who is still growing and learning what it means to work.

turns out Dante is quite the snuggler. my efforts to capture funny expressions were rewarded more than i expected haha

It was cool watching how L went about her work with Dante tho. Very methodical. Very systematic. Very focused on showing the horse what was expected while exposing him to all kinds of activity. And of course, lots of pets and rewards when he was a good boy.

told ya i had to get my fix somehow!

He's such a lovely horse to watch, beautiful mover and everything, that it can be easy to forget he's just a green broke baby. He's a clever pone tho. Seems like a quick learner who likes to please. I'll be excited to see how he continues to develop!

still learning how to "look of eagles." but he'll get it one day!

After Dante finished his little workout we went on a meandering tour of the horse park, with L showing me all the coolest fixtures. Like the grass grand prix arenas.

shiny pony

Obviously it's kinda comical for me to think of the grass arenas as being somehow very special or unusual or reserved for select competitions and classes. Because everything here on the east coast is grass. I can ride on grass every day if I want.

he's not.... what you would call an elegant eater lol

But that's really not the case out west. There really isn't any grass anywhere it seems lol. So it actually is somewhat of a novelty lol.

Anyway obviously L and I had to hit up Mary's tack shop too for a little casual browsing. Tho I did actually end up buying something - might write more about that later. Mostly tho it was just your typical adventure of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the absolutely bizarre (and borderline hideous) shit ppl will spend tons of money on for their horses. Like. Uh. This.... bridle.

shopping time!! itsy bitsy saddles and blinged out bridles. for which obvi some sheep sacrificed its existence. 

Final stop of the evening was actually maybe one of the most highly anticipated: L set up dinner with a whole group of local bloggers! Carey met back up with us, and Alex and Karen both joined in as well! We all met up at La Perla for tacos (omgsogoodtho) and lots and lots of pony chat.

wheeeeeee blogger fun!!!!
L to R: Alex, Karen, L Williams, me, and Carey

It's always so cool getting to meet other bloggers in person and hear them describe their horses in ways that don't always come across as well on the internet. And get to hear what everybody is working on, what's new, and what's coming next.

Tho we definitely decided that next time I had to plan a longer visit so I could meet the rest of the ponies too - including Scarlet (who is undoubtedly very similar to Isabel in some ways) and the new baby Catalina!! Next time guys, for sure!! Thanks y'all for making the end of an otherwise boring work trip so much more fun!!

Anyway - for the readers out there, have you had any opportunities to meet up with horsey folk you met from the blogs? Or gotten to tack on fun horse-filled activities to an otherwise unrelated trip?