When Jen and I originally talked schedule for the bloggers weekend, we ended up with February because horse showing really starts full force here in March.  She warned me that Texas winter can be unpredictable in February, and I said something like “Lolz u crazy this is Texas it’ll be 60.”

Therefore, we had freezing rain for Friday & Saturday.  That was lucky though… Dallas had 4″ of snow which left poor Andrea snowed in.  Even with the freezing weather, I had a great weekend of fun with Stephanie from Hand Gallop, Genny from A Gift Horse, my co-host Jen of Wyvern Oaks, Jen (Known in my brain as CJ Jen) from Cob Jockey, and of course local favorites Amanda of The $900 Facebook Pony, Karen from Bay With Chrome and Laura of Don’t Eat the Paint.

With the crazy weather, everyone’s schedule was a bit all over the place.  I took a half day Friday, and synced up with Genny and CJ Jen to see if they wanted to head out to see Mr. Simon pants.  To me, low 30’s is blanket and TV weather but my guests have had winter temperatures under 0 this year so they were game.  We took out Simon and a lovely schoolmaster Mia for a blustery hack.

I warmed up Simon enough to be convinced that his “expressive head shaking” (the only way he knows how to be bad I think) was dissipating and then threw Jen up on him.

While my horse was relatively well behaved for her, my saddle did hurt Jen’s arm by having the hardest stirrup leathers to adjust in the world.  Sorry about that!

Her and Genny switched horses, while I walked around the ring trying not to freeze.  I’ll let them tell you about their rides, and will just provide my low quality iPhone pictures for this post!

Later that night at my house we were joined by Jen J, Fuzzy Pony (of Jen J’sS blog), Amanda, Karen and Stephanie once she braved probably the crappiest Texas driving conditions ever to come visit us all!

Friday night was pretty chill with a ton of hard apple cider, food and desserts… including a cookie cake we all signed.

I’ll give bonus points to anyone who can guess what FFWM stands for or who signed that 😉

I also gave out the swag bags that Stephanie helped me with, but those are going to get a post of their own tomorrow!

Saturday brought some freezing rain to Austin and the group got a bit smaller.  After a amazing delicious breakfast at Wyvern Oaks, we braved the freezing rain in the name of pony cuddling and jousting.

I was the idiot who dressed more for the tack store shopping than outdoor weather, so spent most of my time cuddling Paddington for warmth (and calling him my best friend… which is typically what I do around Paddy) and walking around taking photos.  Again, I’ll let those who actually rode blog about the riding!

Saturday concluded with some tack shopping at Charlotte’s Saddlery (where I scored an awesome Ariat vest for 50% off) and Dover Austin (where I wanted to buy some nice rubber reins, but exhibited self control).

After shopping, we stuffed our faces with Tex Mex at Chuy’s and split off so the Wyvern Oaks animals could get fed and I could take care of my motley crew of Mauldin dogs.  Stephanie and I also took a trip to the flagship Whole Foods in search of fanciful delights.

Blogger’s weekend concluded with a quiet evening at Wyvern Oaks, where model horse phenom Laura joined us from San Antonio.

I had a great time this weekend getting to know everyone and hanging out with some of my favorite bloggers.  The equestrian blogging community is a wonderful and unique place.  I think each blogger has a different perspective to offer and something that makes them unique.  At the end of the day, we’re all united by a common love of our horses and this crazy sport.  It’s a rare and wonderful thing to spend time hanging out with so many people who share my same passion!

I hope everyone had as fun of a time as I did 🙂

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