Party In the USA (also, we have a name)

::::::::::::::PSA - Gray Brad's flight got moved up a day, and he arrived safe and sound (courtesy of KLM airlines) in Los Angeles yesterday.  So far it looks like he's traveling well and should be on his way north on Wednesday.  He'll enjoy the holiday in Oregon, but should be tucked into our barn on Saturday!!!! Merry Thanksgivingmas indeed! :::::::::::::::::

So with an ETA set, my anxiety over picking a name has only continued to grow.  I'm quite sure that no one else is overly concerned about the naming process for Gray Brad (whaaa??), but every time I'm at the barn and see his future stall with an empty nameplate holder I hyperventilate a little and get back to brainstorming. 

I've literally got a Blank Space _____________

My poor friends have born the brunt of this ongoing question - getting endless text spewing possible names... "How about mr. wompum-pants?  Mark? what about Henri... that's French.. he's French... but I found him in Germany, should his name be German? OOOHHHH FREDERICK. no... not that..."

omg, the endless texts.  Bless them for humoring me.  I really shouldn't be surprised that I have been an indecisive stressball since we had the (exact) same problem naming our daughter...
 
I am not kidding when I say that our "beautiful birth story" involved walking around the deserted hallways of a hospital until 4am literally reading every baby name list online from A-Z out loud with my poor, tired husband.... His patience knows no bounds...
 
Or maybe it does...  He's done a good job of feigning interest in the horse naming process, but this weekend when I finally blurted out an option for Gray Brad that caused him to stop and say "That one. I like that one, that's the winner.  Just name him."
 
a) he's right, I should just name him, and b) if it's the wrong name we'll just change it later.  We are allowed to do that. (it turns out name plates are not what is actually expensive in this process...)
 
The show name was the easy part.  There were only a few final options that we both loved, and the winner gradually rose to the top.  Once it became clear that both sleeping on it and wine (along with lack of wine) didn't change my enthusiasm for it - we made it official with USEF, and you will officially find us in the Hunter Ring showing under "Heir Apparent."
 
Why Heir Apparent?  Well... for a while I was trying to stick with the one-word-adjective style name but was striking out.  I didn't want anything to pretentious like "Perfection" (actually a noun, I know), and it's hard to think of good adjectives that are both inspiring and humble... so I gave up. 
 
Then I enlisted my brother for help brainstorming obscure (or maybe not so obscure) monarchs and military leaders.  He did a great job, and I had a fabulous list of potential names, but none of them seemed to fit perfectly with the refined little Gray that we ended up with.  I loved Churchill, but aside from the fact that there are a bazillion Churchill's already registered with USEF, I feel like Churchill needs to be a large, square, stately horse.  Not a feminine, tidy, little guy....
 
So, then the search widened... I tried to keep to the Royal/Military theme, and stumbled upon Heir Apparent, and it just rang true.  I like that it's still regal in reference.. but it's also aspirational, not declarative.  We are not going to assume that we are/will be some great emperor and conquer the world...  Instead it's more like "someday" we might "maybe" be something cool. 
 
I do believe in the manifest destiny of naming... I think if you name your horse something like "Deadly Hurricane Rage,"  you might get a whiff of that personality.  Pia's name was originally P.I.A. and stood for Pain In (the) Ass.  I'd love to claim that she didn't live up to that.. but... well.... she's a feisty one.
 
So, something slow... something simple... something that implies maybe we'll be awesome.. That's why I like Heir Apparent.
 
Which brings us to his barn name.  My initial intent with Heir Apparent, was to find a cute French Prince to name him after, so that we had a nod to his Selle Francais registration.  My problem started with the fact that there are only like 12 names used (ever) for French Princes.  Not exactly a wide swath of variety (though I knew this going in).   After I weeded out the idiots and assholes., that short list got even shorter.. and the only two names left that I sort of liked, (Louis and Henri) were already taken by horses I know and love. 
 
So once again, the search parameters widened... to regions, other countries, and.... pretty much anything. 
 
Finally, in what is probably a slap in the face to his French heritage, we crossed the pond, and landed on "Windsor" as a barn name.
 
It still ties to his show name, it fits within the maximum two syllables allowed, and most importantly, The Boy gave it his blessing.  I figure this is important since it's his retirement fund I (maybe) spent (a little) of.
 
And so, the great Naming Saga of 2015 comes to a close. 

But never fear!  Brad, Gray Brad, and Bradley are all still totally acceptable.  I'm sure they will stay in the nickname rotation... they just won't be engraved on anything ;)
Ta-Da!

Now the countdown is on for Christmas Saturday and getting this guy all settled in!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Grazy ex(new) Girlfriend: Cyber Stalking Brad

I don't know about you guys, but whenever there is a new horse around, I always (always) cyber stalk the crap out of it. 

(And since Prair is 90 minutes away, and Gray Brad is even farther... I have little to do with my horsey time other than scour the internet for information, and tack sales....)

Thanks to the ever increasing depths and online presence of the Horse World, often there are wonderful, endless click-holes that you can just fall into and pretty soon you're looking at 20 year old wedding photos of a horse's breeder... Which... isn't creepy at all...

Fortunately for me, since Gray Brad was born in 2008, most of his life is online, including his auction sale, stallion approval, and apparently some showjumping rounds (if I want to pay for the download...).  Even Prair, who is a 2005 model, has almost no online record from her time in Germany.  Amazing what a difference a few years can make...

We'll start with what I know.  Gray Brad was born April 16, 2008.  His first internet hit is his sale at auction for 9,000 euro in October of 2008.  (for the record that actually seems like quite a lot for a 6 month old? am I crazy?). 

I think this is his foal video from that auction, but I can't figure out how to embed it, so you'll have to click through if you want to see baby Gray Brad in a pasture... he's just starting to show that he'll gray out, but otherwise looks like a gangly, goofy baby.  If there's one thing I fully acknowledge I have no ability to do, it's detect future prowess and ability in a foal. 

I have no shot of being able to tell who will have springs in their legs, or move like a freak, (or anything, really) by watching a baby.  My eye has no idea what to look at.  I get way too distracted by cute baby fluff and those impossibly long legs... so I remain mystified by those who are able to see greatness in babies.

After his 2008 sale, it's pretty much radio silence until 2011, when webstallions.com has this video, which I think is from stallion approvals, but could just be his inspection.  I can't tell.




Then there is another big gap while baby horse grows up a little more, gets started under saddle and finally starts FEI competition 2014 at a 6 year old.  There might be other, local results, but I haven't stumbled onto those pages yet...

He started in the 1.20m FEI classes, where he stayed (for the most part) as a 6 year old.  A few larger classes at 1.30 toward the end of the year (which might be what the WCYH class is at?)

2015 saw him move up to 1.35 and 1.40, with his biggest accomplishment to date being a qualification for the World Championships, and making it to the final round of that competition. 

Again, I'm not a jumper, and I'm definitely not an FEI jumper - so I don't really know what this means.  I was told that about 3,000 horses attempt to qualify, with 300 getting a bid to compete, and that whittles down to about 60 for the final.  I'm sure of those 300, lots choose not to make the trip to Belgium, so I'm sure that actual numbers at the competition are smaller than that.  But still, top 60?  I think that's pretty good.  I might have to educate myself on the selection process.  But with my cross multiplying skills, I know that getting to the finals puts him in the top 2% of 7 year olds who are competing internationally at that height... so that's pretty damn cool.

There are lots of random website hits for this name in 2014, and 2015 which all seem to equate to show results and entry lists of the various shows he attended.  Not much else to add, aside from a couple of blurry photos.  Usually I won't screen grab a professional photo, but I made a moral exception in this case and captured what I could for archival purposes.  There are only two images that I think are actually him (there is a horse competing under a VERY similar name and their images and videos both return on searches..). 



Blurry, and there was no option to buy/photographer to credit... SORRY INTERNET

The only other fun fact I've been able to scrape up (so far) is that he has (at least) one baby on the ground that was born in June of 2014.  She's a filly, registered Belgian, and has one competition on record from 2015.. I'm assuming some sort of breeding class?

So, that's what's I've learned.  It's the horsey equivalent of digging into someone's facebook and looking at all their ex-girlfriends, and vacation photos and family pictures from Thanksgiving of 2003.  Except with horse-stalking you don't have to worry about your clumsy fingers accidentally liking a photo from 6 years ago....

Eating Ramen: and other cheap things to do after wiring all your money away...

Title is self explanatory I think.  We are officially one step closer to bringing New Gray Horse home.

Good thing we actually like ramen??!?

The money (all.of.it) has been sent. 

But as I've just sent a mysterious and large amount of money into Brussels (to an ex-pat) in the middle of a white-hot hunt for suspicious activity... I'm a tad nervous that I've been flagged onto some international watch list.

I informed The Boy that if we now always get pulled for "random searches" as TSA, I might know why...

Regardless, we are inching closer to actually bringing this horse into the barn.  So I should obviously get back to important things like naming the puppy, tack ho-ing for a new horse, and well... daydreaming.

FAQs:

Q: When will Gray Brad arrive?

A:  His flight is booked for the 24th, which means he should just be clearing quarantine about the time Thanksgiving happens, so I'm not sure how much that will delay him getting on a truck from LAX to Seattle... I'm sort of expecting him right around the 1st of the month.. maybe a tad sooner.

Q: Is Gray Brad going to be named Brad??

A:  Not sure.  Since I cannot pronounce either his current show name or his barn name, he is certainly in need of both.  I have a few show names on a short list and since there's a USHJA discount if you renew your membership before Dec 1... you can bet I'm going to decide that pretty soon.  I'm torn as to whether or not I should try to pick his barn name before he arrives.  On one hand I like getting to know a horse and letting their name be a natural fit.  On the other hand, sometimes that is how I end up with a terrible name.

Q:How much did all of this cost?

A: I am compiling my import costs, and will definitely craft a post when I have everything finalized.  So far, aside from the actual cost of Gray Brad (flying-money-emoji) this is all running about what I expected... maybe a tad less.  Though even thinking those words is a sure fire way to get blindsided by something..

Q: How much of Prair's stuff can you use on Gray Brad?

A: Uh... hopefully at least some of it.  There's no shot in hell that her saddle will fit, I'm hoping her nice CWD bridle will... I know I have enough girths in inventory that something will work... not sure about the martingale.  For sure her blankets won't work.. I don't know what size Gray Brad wears, but I'm pretty sure it's not "brontosaurus."  I'm hoping that I can eBay some of the larger items in my collection and seed a small "tack fund" for Gray Brad.  His plane ticket pretty much wiped out his tack fund for a while I think...

So that's the update.  A name will be forthcoming, so will a USEF number... And if all goes well, there should be a Gray horse in the barn by December!!!!

Vetting - aka Horsey Land Purgatory

I'm pretty sure that the process of vetting a potential horse is one of the most stress inducing aspects of horse ownership.  Not because we don't make bigger, more important (potentially even more expensive) decisions once they are ours, but because the big, presumably smart Adult part of our brains have to go to war with the twelve year old girl who is jumping up and down shouting "pony! pony! pony!!!!" 

I have no photos for this post, but this 6 month old St Bernard lives at Gray Brad's barn and is cute.

Any number of things could pop up on a PPE, and if you're Twelve Year Old self gets too much control you'll end up adopting (or god forbid paying for) lamey-mc-lamerson because you've already fallen in love and you'll love him forever even if he only has three legs, half of his colon, and maybe one good eyeball... And when that happens, you my friend, are screwed.

Trying to force oneself to Adult in these scenarios is hard.  I've mostly decided that this is why you pay Trainers a commission.  It's not to necessarily unearth the last unicorn and bring it to you on a platter, it's really more to keep you from blindly writing checks for pretty- but useless, Brads.

Now, I'd like to think I've gotten the hang of this internal war, and I think I can even maintain a semblance of self control - at least for a couple of days. 

But vetting Gray Brad has taken  a week.

A WHOLE GOD DAMN WEEK. 

Part of this is due to the fact that while we were flying home on a 40 minute layover (which translates to a full sprint through Heathrow's Terminal 5...) we found out that Gray Brad's owner didn't really want to sell him. 

Or maybe she did.

Well, maybe for a different price

Or maybe just if I paid her commission...

Or maybe not.

I dunno....

Aside from nearly dying of heartbreak (the Twelve Year Old self might have had the upper hand there for a while..) I was furious, and we opted to postpone the vetting while we figured out if we did or didn't have a deal.

We were finally able to move forward with a PPE on Monday, which Gray Brad appeared to pass with flying colors.  But nothing really passes until our really picky lameness vet takes a really good look at everything. 

Everything means videos of everything, x-rays of everything, ultrasounds of everything.  Everythings of everything.

Everything.

And, as you may imagine, transferring all of those files didn't exactly go smoothly.  Attachments bounced.  Some videos came fragmented, while some came through fine.  There was even a (rather surprising) series of endoscopy photos.  (Something I've never done on a PPE), but between the language barrier and a 9 hour time change it was really hard to get my vet to figure out what she was missing with enough time to get the German vet notice while his clinic was still open.

Therefore my poor, little, underdeveloped Adult brain had to wage war for five whole days. 

This is not easily done.

Fortunately Gray Brad (somehow) has the world's cleanest films for a seven year old who's been busy leaping over huge jumps. His ultrasounds also looked remarkably clean.  And the endoscopy (?) was also normal...

uhhh, normal I guess?

So.  My friends.  GRAY BRAD HAS CLEARED THE VETTING. 

I'd be popping the champagne and letting my Twelve Year Old self run wild with Pixie Stix or whatever she likes aside from ponies - but the slight shenanigans that delayed the vetting still have me slightly on guard. 

I'm not sure I'll allow myself full celebration  until I hear that all four hooves are locked and loaded on a plane bound for LAX....

But, for now... things are moving forward, I'm just not uncrossing any fingers or toes quite yet.