Forget the fancy celebrities in attendance. Forget the accomplished Olympic riders. Forget the rows and rows of amazing vendors. I was soooo excited when I noticed Gus Forbush working the terrier races on the floor Thursday night!

I’m just joking about forgetting about all the cool things that make WIHS such a fun show but I have to say getting to say hi and visit briefly with Gus as well as his wife Sandra really made my trip worth while! They are such wonderful people and such genuine horse folks! I hope I can figure out how to get up to VA and go out hilltopping with them this season!

Oh yeah… the terrier races were fun to and what an exciting surprise to run into Wendy from Horse Country walking two successful racing terriers with her! It felt like a family reunion for me that night!

Well, not quite but if you add in lots of evergreens then western North Carolina could look kinda like Oregon. 🙂

I drove over to Bristol, VA (pretty much Tennessee actually) to pick up Chelsea as her folks were so kind to allow her to PA for the WIHS shoots. Picollo and I were welcomed with an artistic door sign. Ah dorm life!!

I was able to watch Chelsea’s jumping lesson the next morning and meet a few of her classmates plus I brought along a few HorseGirlTV t-shirts for her to give away to the girls of VIC!

Oh and I can’t forget the cool horse skeleton in one of their classrooms. Evidently it was one of the VIC school horses from years back but hopefully that’s just a urban legend. Doh.

i met up with the HOOF-it folks the day after our shoot. for lack of more cultured places to meet up in this area we chose starbucks to toss around ideas, talk about horses, both the world of horses and technology and life in general. i had the best time with these guys on so many different levels. the shoot with leslie was fabulous and lots of good education passed and just general chatter about life, horses and technology was something i was evidently craving this week! this first picture is left to right; danny, me and leslie and the second photo taken outside was me trying to show off my large starbucks cup! haha! notice the thinline hoof pads in danny’s hand? i love connecting cool, smart people in our industry and who better than hoof-it and thinline? it’s been an über busy but terribly fun week!

danny, me & leslie:

trying to get starbucks into the picture:

we had a fabulous shoot yesterday with the HOOF-it folks! they are so cool but what did i expect from people that put out innovative hoof products?? definitely awesome! they brought me more gifts! this time, some wicked styling coffee mugs with the perfect “burrr it’s cold outside” hand cupping action! check HOOF-it out online at http://www.hoof-it.com

not because all the stores have halloween AND thanksgiving AND christmas stuff up but because i received 3 huge boxes weighing a total of 71 pounds from HOOF-it. they are this innovative hoof care company and i’m so honored they are flying out here to NC from CA this next week to shoot and episode with us. i’m very excited to learn about composites shoes and their advantages! check them out if you get a chance at http://www.hoof-it.com