I left you hanging a few days ago with my decision to do the John and Josh Lyons Certification Program in Colorado in 2001 so I'll talk about the logistics of that decision today.
It was not as simple as I'd first imagined, needless to say, haha.
The course ran over a period of 7 months, with 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off. It was in Colorado but I was living 3 days travel away, in Connecticut. I also needed to take 2 horses with me (one started and one unstarted) and I was very new to the USA so that presented another problem.
So, to the important things first, the HORSES.
I had, as you do, promised a polo pony in Singapore, Chaucitta, that if I ever could, I would get her out of Singapore and bring her home with me. I rang her owner and, as my luck would have it, he was thinking he'd have to retire her from polo because she seemed to be developing arthritis. Having been imported to Singapore as a 2-year-old, already playing polo, from Argentina and now 10-years old, the diagnosis was hardly surprising. OK, there's my 'broke' horse (that's not a great expression but one of many I had to learn when I moved to the USA).
As I was flying a horse from Singapore to the USA, I thought Perth is close to Singapore, right? I called a dressage judge friend of mine, Roz Tippett, in Perth and she had a lovely 3-year-old warmblood mare for sale. Perfect!
Saskatchewan (aka Chewy), flew out of Perth, collected Chaucitta from Singapore and made the journey to Colorado to meet me at John Lyons' property in the grand metropolis of Parachute.
Stay tuned for the next update where I get my head around the US lingo and navigate a few embarrassing moments!
