I'm gonna keep this first post short and sweet with a quick update on where we have been and what we have done since you last heard from us. I believe we left off mid-season 2010 with a goal of the T3D at Galway Downs in the fall. Well, we had a pretty great season to be honest, no ribbons but HUGE improvements in dressage, some fantastically fun XC rides and some beautiful with a touch of ugly stadium rounds. We made it to the T3D healthy, fit and focused, put in one of our best dressage tests to date and ended things right about there. Actually, we made it a little further than that...all the way to the third jump on the steeplechase when Gatsby decided that rather than jump the steeplechase fence, he'd like to jump out of the racetrack. Yep, no jokes there, we jumped OUT of the racetrack. Needless to say, our T3D journey sadly ended there.
Mere weeks before the T3D I had made a sudden but probably forewarned decision to vacate the bay area and head home to Santa Barbara. While I loved my barn and all the new friends I had made there, my relationship wasn't working out well and overall I knew I wasn't happy there and missed my family. So, two weeks after Galway I packed up and headed home only to leave again to travel with my family for two months in French Polynesia. While there, I happened to meet a dashingly charming British man who completely swept me off my feet and has forever changed my life. Those of you who are friends with me on facebook will know that I spent the next year half in Santa Barbara, half traveling and 100% falling in love with this man who I would eventually marry in December of 2012. During this exciting time, while I was still riding Gatsby and giving him all the love and attention he deserves, eventing and competing were put on the back burner. For one, I was gone for most of the eventing season and two, I was not fully employed and couldn't really afford lessons or shows.
I guess that wasn't really all that short but what can I say? A LOT has happened in the last two years! Which brings us to now; living in lovely Santa Barbara with my friends, family and wonderful husband (still feels weird to say that!), working at an amazing job in downtown SB, and, the part I'm sure you've all been waiting for, working hard to get myself and Gatsby fit enough to compete again! Right now we are shooting for a possible fall HT and we will go from there! I will try my hardest to be a better blogger this time around because I so enjoy reading all of your blogs everyday and it's not really fair for me not to contribute now is it?!?!
Love,
Elena & Gatsby
