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Well, my mother and I hauled Whiz and Player about 5 hours from here in Vegas to the outside of Simi Valley, CA. We were going to leave on Sunday since that was our day off, but there were high chances of snow in the mountain passes so our boss and we don't have our 4 wheel drive dodge anymore or chains. Grant, was nice enough to let us leave early that day and we would feed in the afternoon on Sunday instead of this evening. He's such a great boss.

It was pretty cloudy outside with light winds for most of the trip--no snow, except at the very top of the mountains. We hit rain in Pasadena as well as heavy traffic, but we have already hit traffic off and on beginning in Victorville. Blah, the traffic there is almost as bad as it is here...or worse. It's really pretty in California once you get to the San Bernardino Mountains. I see why Tom liked it so much. Its so much prettier there than in the ugly Mojave Desert that I live in. We arrived in Simi Valley around 2-ish, but and found Tom's about half an hour later. It was hidden in a between two small mountains, kind of like a little valley. The weather was starting to clear up and we had a little bit of sunlight, still had some winds.

Tom's new place is still under construction, but it's going to be so awesome when it's done. Right now, the main, 14 horse show barn, a mile long racetrack, a round pen and some pipe corrals were completed. The slide track (a large arena without side panels) that was going to be in the middle of the racetrack is set to be complete by the end of this week. There will be an indoor arena built, but it is not scheduled to start until this spring after the rains let up. The show-barn will have two small apartments for the assistants and two really big tack rooms, and wash racks. There will be a mare motel built as well.

When we arrived, we met Tom's wife, Kirstin, who will run the breeding operation--they stand two stallions, Guinness and Cattitude. She was tacking up a red roan gelding that she has ridden and shown. When we pulled up and she quickly finished saddling him and went to get Tom. Tom was working a buckskin mare in the round pen and was almost done lunging her. He had an assistant finish lunging her while he went to go look at Whiz and Player and talked to us.

He's a really nice guy. You can really tell he enjoys what he does. He had an assistant saddle up Whiz and I saddled Player since I brought my saddle just in case he wanted me to ride--which he did. I lunged Player in the round pen; he was feeling quite fresh and still was even after I lunged him. Then I brought him down to the racetrack so the assistant could lunge Whiz. There, Kirstin and a girl about my age, Rebecca, were loping around the track and Tom was spinning the mare he was lunging earlier. He asked me a few questions about Player and said he was going to watch me ride. I was really nervous and Player could sense I was so he wanted to spook at everything--especially Tom's little boy, Dane. Player was like "Omg! It's a midget! *snooooorrrrrtttt*" Finally I was loping him around and he was being really heavy on the front end and wanted to drop his shoulder and drift left really bad on the right lead. It was like watching a drunken horse and rider. We were everywhere and trying to avoid Kirstin and Rebecca, and now Whiz since the assistant was warming him up. Whiz was being so much better behaved that Player.

Finally Tom told me not to worry about his frame anymore and just gallop around the track until he came back to Planet Earth. 3 laps and 2 crowhops later (every time he loped by Tom) later he stopped looking for things to spook at and was listening...also tired. Tom was now on Whiz and working on his spins since Lior got Whiz really confused. When Whiz started to do better, he stopped and asked me to do a few lead changes. Player wasn't very willing and finally did a decent lead change on the 3rd try. I sat there a few minutes and let Player catch his breath while watching Tom lope around on Whiz doing flawless lead-changes. Every time he did a good one he either pats him on his rump or scratched his neck. Then he asked me to spin Player. Player's been really forward in his spins instead of rocking back and Tom showed me on Whiz what he does to fix that. I spun him again--this time with Tom telling me what to do and where to fix him.

It was so nice how he never yelled and got impatient. He stayed calm and never harshly criticized me or Player or Whiz. He told me I had a nice seat, but I needed to look up more and work on a few other things. He treated me kindly and even joked a little bit. When we were done, he made Rebecca introduce herself to me and we talked a little bit. Rebecca was his only other youth since his other one, graduated and is at college. He was teasing her and told us we should exchange phone numbers. He's a pushy guy, but it a good way. He wants me out back out again to ride Whiz when Rebecca is out on Winter break as well so we could socialize and become buddies. He said that Whiz would be the better one out of the two, and I needed something to ride at home (plus we couldn't afford to keep both in training). So, we kept Whiz at Tom's and Player was coming back home with us, which I was glad in a way. I love my Player. <3 He said that whenever we come up there we could bring Player and he could help me with him a little bit.

He introduced us to all the horses at the barn and man; there are some really nice horses there. He has 11 horses coming on 2 and 7 horses coming on 3. Then about 5 derby horses and quite a few nonpro horses. It's a good thing he has 3 assistants. When we were getting ready to leave, it started raining again and it was around five. Since we hit snow and traffic in certain areas, we had to drive slower, so it took us about 6 hours to get home. I can't wait to go back up there in a couple weeks. It was an exhausting trip, but a well worth one.