TOABH: Wish We Could
My mood has been foul this week for no particular reason. I could dwell on that, or I could distract myself with an equestrian fantasy in The Owl’s Approve‘s blog hop this week. I choose option two.
Let’s pretend that financial restrictions don’t exist and logistics isn’t a nightmare. If you could do anything with your Ponykins, what would you do?
If I could do anything with Simon, it would be show at WEF for the entire twelve week circuit.
When I first heard of the Winter Equestrian Festival, I thought it was only for the elite. International riders need only apply. Six figure horses everywhere. While it’s certainly true that WEF has all of those things and more, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Everyone’s money is the same color.
You don’t need to qualify for WEF. You don’t need to be amazing. You just need to pay up baby!
There are amazing riders, and not so amazing riders. The same with horses. Not only that, but they have magical divisions like Level 0 Jumpers for amateurs. So basically, I could pay roughly $10,000 a week (very rough estimate probably on the high end) to go jump 2’9″ with my horse over and over again until I wasn’t worried about it.
That is probably extremely silly to a lot of people, but if I had it… I would!
Plus we’d be warm and sunny. Since I’m living this fantasy life, Simon also lives the fantasy. He gets Theraplate treatments every day. Vibrating ice boots. Magnetic treatments. Massages! Turnout under Florida palm trees. Cool down hacks down the bridle path.
It’s all so lovely in my mind.
So while there are lots of cool equestrian activities I’d love to do with a different horse, like camping in the mountains or cutting/reining, with Simon specifically the answer will always be WEF.
Great hop Beka! This gave me a fun minute of fantasy on an otherwise chilly, gloomy day.
26 thoughts on “TOABH: Wish We Could”
The farm I worked for in Ocala had a barn at WEF too. I liked to be in Ocala because it seemed more realistic, but being able to afford WEF would be SO amazing! It’s like fairytale horse-land at any level. I hope that you and Simon get to do this one day 🙂
You had me convinced at vibrating ice boots!
Maybe I should just buy the vibrating ice boots? They are a lot cheaper than WEF 😉
What an awesome dream!!!!
Oooooh I wish you would. Then you’d take pics and I could live vicariously.
There would be -so- many pictures.
I would totally do the same! WEF just looks so beautiful and glamorous, and I would totally have the expensive riding wardrobe to go along with it!! (in this dream of mine)
All the outfits!
Sorry your mood has been so foul! WEF is the upgrade to my Thermal dream 😛
If there’s a dressage section for WEF, we should totally trailer down together! 😉
It’s just right across the street!
I’m actually headed down to the Global Dressage Festival next week. Maybe I’ll even stick around and catch some of the jumpers. 😉
This makes me feel waaaaay richer than I am. Really I just scored a great plane ticket and my trainer is very generous with her guest housing. 🙂
I would so totally be at WEF right now if I could afford it!
that would be awesome – and such a good use of *unlimited* resources!! time to start buying lotto tickets lol 😀
I would do the same thing with Miles, except hunter-style. Also, I know the gi & pony in your last photo! That’s Emily and Lemony
If only we had unlimited funds!! That definitely sounds like a great way to spend the winter, because this frozen toes while sitting inside my house sure sucks lol. I feel you on the winter blues!! In this cold weather all I want to do is be in bed in my warm blankets reading a book. 🙂
Great dream! I’d love to go to WEF.
Is that really what it costs? Holy crap! I could do 5 days of a multi-day endurance race for about a hundred bucks a day which means I’d be on my horse close to ten hours a day. Definitely more saddle time for your money than WEF. :0)
Yeah, it ain’t cheap 😉
Ooooh this is like, secretly a kindof badass dream! But I have a question…. on non-show days, what does one do at WEF? Do you still get to ride your horse? Are there schooling arenas? I have never seen what these big shows are like!!
I believe the only non-show day is Monday. Horses usually get a day off, turn out, etc. A lot of the employees sleep and be hungover because Sunday night is the big party night 😉
Sigh. That sounds lovely!
I would do that, too! Maybe a catch ride on something made and just drink between rounds?
Exactly what I would do!
$10k a week is definitely high, even if you are staying in Grand Prix Village. But sadly not as far off as it could be. Sigh… Gotta work on those money trees!
PS-the first year I went I had the same expectations of grandeur and perfection. The grandeur is definitely there, but horses really are horses no matter where you are.