Monthly Archives: February 2014

The Icepocalypse continued

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We ended up surviving another 4 days without power. Although farms closer to town got theirs back within a couple of days, we’re quite a way out and so we were one of the last places to get reconnected. Us girls actually became quite proficient at existing in the dark… Even though we’ve had electricity back for a few days now, I’ve found myself still wandering around the apartment and using the bathroom with no lighting on more than one occasion.

On a wider scale, Paradise Horse Trials was delayed by a day, and the USEA Aiken Eventing Gala at Stable View Farm was postponed – I was quite grateful for this, I couldn’t imagine us trying to get ourselves looking presentable without decent lighting and our hairdryers!

As if the ice storm wasn’t enough, Aiken even experienced an earthquake one evening. I have to admit I was keeping an eye out for the Horsemen of the Apocalypse – it’s hard to ignore so many warning signs for the end of the world!

Our farm became pretty popular with neighbouring farms because we were one of the few places with running water, thanks to our big propane generator. Lots of people dropped by to fill up water containers to cart back to their barns, or to borrow the wash bay to prepare for Paradise.

I must say a huge thanks to everyone who kindly offered up their couches, floors, beds and showers so that we could retain some sense of civilisation throughout the week. All in all we were very lucky to escape relatively unscathed – aside from the inconvenience of no electricity and the big clean up job ahead of us, there was no major damage to the property and all of the horses remained happy, safe and sound.

Riding in the aftermath of the storm – there is a hell of a clean up job ahead of us!

Aiken Icepocalypse – Day 2

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By the second day, we began to realise that we may be without power for longer than expected, so we were just going to have to try and manage as best as we could. With Paradise Horse Trials coming up on the weekend, the horses couldn’t afford to have another day off. The ice had stopped falling and one of the guys managed to use the tractor to drag a basic track around one of the paddocks, so by midday when it was starting to warm up and thaw out a little, the competition horses were able to be given a basic workout.

The rest of the horses were given some time out in the paddocks, which was pretty exciting for them after being cooped up inside for much longer than they’re used to. It’s always nerve-wracking watching them being a bit wild outside, and even worse when they’re galloping around on ice! Luckily they were all pretty sensible after their initial hijinks and everyone came back in safe and sound.

We were still without power for the second night, but a few places in town had regained theirs and Phillip kindly offered to put us up in a hotel so we wouldn’t have to endure another freezing, showerless night. This however turned into a huge ordeal – we tried a number of times to check in but kept being told our room wasn’t ready, and by nearly 9pm they finally admitted they had overbooked and we didn’t actually have a room. We were cold, smelly and hungry and had been so excited by the idea of a hot shower and a big warm bed, so we were on the verge of a complete emotional breakdown. Fortunately, the power had just come back on at our barn manager’s place and we were able to take showers and crash on her floor and couches – that shower genuinely felt like the greatest moment of my life!

This hilarious post from Eventing Nation perfectly sums up how all us Aiken eventers were beginning to feel…

http://eventingnation.com/home/8-gifs-that-perfectly-articulate-how-aiken-smells/

Aiken Icepocalypse – Day 1

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Now that life has returned to some kind of normality following a wild winter week in Aiken, I can finally get caught up on my posting. This is likely to be a long one because so much has happened lately, so bear with me!

As many of you would have heard, Aiken was hit by a huge ice storm last week, which wreaked havoc in the lives of locals and eventing snowbirds alike. We lost power early on Wednesday morning, and had to live without it for 6 days.

I’ve never encountered an ice storm like that before and was amazed at how much damage was inflicted. The sheer weight of the ice brought down branches and whole trees all over town, which in turn brought down many power lines, which was the reason for the prolonged power outage.

On the first day when the ice was falling, we kept all the horses in the barn and didn’t ride any of them, although some of our neighbours did still work some of theirs. We just decided that the risk of injury outweighed the benefits – the ice was incredibly slippery under foot, not to mention the fact that falling ice is pretty blinding and unpleasant for horse and rider alike!

Barn work was a challenge, as we had all the windows and doors shut up to try and retain some heat, leaving no natural lighting inside. Mucking stalls by the light of my cell phone became tedious pretty quickly! We did have a generator that we were able to use to run water to the barn, so we were at least able to keep the horses hydrated.

Once the necessities were done that morning, Phillip generously let us head into town to try and get a hot breakfast. This was a long and slow journey though due to the thick coating of ice on the roads – even our big 4WD truck wasn’t immune to slipping and sliding. Nearly everything in town was shut down, even the gas stations. Luckily for us, Waffle House was still open and we ordered nearly everything on the menu and sat down to a huge feast.

That first night was pretty unpleasant – we were trapped on the farm because the roads had become so dangerous by that stage, so there were a number of us piled into our little apartment above the barn with no power or water. We soon became painfully aware of how unprepared we were for this kind of situation… We had one single scented candle to try and share between us all, and dinner existed of Oreos and cereal. Even with multiple layers of clothing and as many blankets as we could find, we were still bitterly cold and miserable. We realised the next morning that we should have set up camp down in the barn itself – all that trapped horsey body heat actually kept the place very warm and toasty. And of course, we had to suffer one of those terrible 21st century tragedies – no wifi or phone chargers!

We had spent that whole night hoping that the power would be back on any minute… Little did we know that we were in for nearly a whole week of living in the dark ages!

Living in the dark ages

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Just a quick note to say I’m not sure when my next real update is going to be – I’m currently living in the aftermath of huge ice storm that has left thousands of people in the area without power, which means no internet access for me. I’m currently sleeping on the floor of our barn manager’s place because our apartment at the barn is pitch black and freezing – crashing in someone’s living room has never felt quite so luxurious! As soon as I get a more reliable internet connection I’ll post a proper update – the last few days have been quite an adventure to say the least.

Another day in paradise

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I just have to share this beautiful sunrise photo from yesterday morning when I was heading out to the barn.

I’m living and working in such a gorgeous area with some really amazing people, doing something that I love every day… Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Eventing Nation’s Working Student Diaries

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Last week I was contacted by Sally from Eventing Nation, asking if I was interested in being the first featured subject in their new series, Working Student Diaries. Of course I was thrilled to oblige!

Check out the article here:

http://eventingnation.com/home/working-student-diaries-cobie-sheehan/

I nearly died of excitement when it was published – I’ve gone from being a little old nobody from Australia to being featured on the front page of Eventing Nation… I really am living the dream!

My first competition – Sporting Days Farm Horse Trials

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I had my first experience with American one day eventing over the past weekend – and what an experience it was! While most horse trials back in Australia run over an entire weekend, genuine one day events are far more common over here in the US. I’m very used to having the three disciplines spread out over two days with plenty of time in between, so getting it all over and done with in a matter of hours is a bit of a foreign concept to me!

I was grooming for Waylon, one of Phillip’s riders, who was competing on four Training level horses – Vanderbilt (Vandy), Winter Colony (Teddy), Good Enough (Goody), and my super special favourite, Automagically (Bones).

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning to get the horses all fed before hauling across town to Sporting Days Farm, with our first dressage test at 8am. I had a very busy morning getting the 4 horses through dressage, show jumping (called stadium over here) and cross country in a 3 and a half hour time period. That’s a lot of grooming, tacking, untacking, unbraiding and cooling out to get done, while making sure the next horse was always ready to go!

Being mugged for carrots by Teddy and Bones

I did struggle with the concept of leaving the horses on the trailer all day except for when they were competing – very different to having them all tied to the sides all day like we do at home. It’s apparently quite easy to play Spot the Aussie at competitions over here – they’re the only ones who have all their horses off the trailer and tied up! It felt a bit inefficient having to get each of them on and off multiple times to get them ready, but admittedly it was more pleasant for them to be inside when the rain began midway through the morning.

The trailer, with 5 ponies hiding inside out of sight. It would surely be so much more efficient to have them tied up outside rather than dragging them on and off all day…

It was a very successful day for Team PDE, with Goody finishing 2nd, Bones and Vandy 3rd in their respective divisions, and Teddy ending up 4th, losing his hold on the first place ribbon after a couple of unfortunate rails.

XC warmup

Bones cruising on course

The ribbon haul!

It was quite a novelty being finished and heading out the gate just after lunchtime – going back home and leisurely taking an entire weekend to compete on one horse will be a total breeze!

USEF High Performance Training Sessions

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I was lucky enough to be invited along to some of the USEF High Performance Training Sessions this week. They’re held at Stable View Farm, which is an amazing facility on the other side of Aiken. It’s well worth having a look at their website, although the property really is much more impressive in person.

http://stableviewfarm.com

The Training Sessions are run by David O’Connor, and are used to assess how the squad members and their horses have progressed over the off season and where they’re up to in their training and fitness. Each horse also undergoes a thorough health assessment with the team vets, again just to see where they’re at, to investigate any issues that may have occurred in the past and to make plans on how to avoid any problems in the future.

Phillip took Mr Medicott, and it was really exciting and informative to be able to watch them have a jump lesson with David. The arena was packed with other people also watching, even though it was bitterly freezing – it seemed that no one wanted to miss out on seeing them jump. They really are a celebrity pair around here. I’m feeling very privileged to be so involved in all of this behind-the-scenes action!