It seems that life either has 2 paces, lightning fast or slow as molasses. For us at Freedman’s, it’s always lightning fast, good or bad. It’s been almost a year since our last blog posting, my apologies but it’s been one of those years where we were hanging on by our fingernails just trying to be sure that everything got done and the blog had to take a backseat to the rest of the rush.
We have done a lot in this last year. Following the World Equestrian Games in Lexington, our boutique’s home base, we played a lot of catch up as those 3 weeks really required every bit of energy we had. Followed by memory loss of anything that came before or after it, we are still wondering if it was just a dream. We followed the WEG with Arabian Nationals and then the Royal Winter Fair where David is the Horse Show Chairmen. David then traveled to Spain and finally the holidays were upon us.
Fast forward to the first week of January and we once again made our yearly pilgrimage to the United Professional Horsemen’s Association convention, this time in Boston, MA. More about the UPHA later, they are up to great things right now. February had us in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Arabian show, 28 hours of driving each way. Did you know that there isn’t a single Starbucks from the western edge of Amarillo, Texas until you reach Scottsdale Arizona?? Awful.
March was another annual drive to Ocala, Florida for the Live Oak Invitational CDE. We always enjoy this show in its picturesque setting, andFlorida isn’t a bad place to be if you are ready to get over the winter blues. Europe was next for us, we started in Spain for the Feria of Sevilla, never in my life have I seen so many horses, by the hundreds, mostly stallions and most in harness. It was a wild experience filled with so much color and culture. We went from Sevilla to Windsor,England for the Royal Windsor Horse show. Another experience that was memorable, the Queen, Hackney Horses, Coaching and Cornish Pasties were among my favorite.
Finally back in the States and closer to home, we jumped into our show horse season. The Buckeye, Rock Creek, Region 14, CAA Carriage Classic and the Bluegrass Morgan show all got us prepped for the really big shows to come. Junior League was a knockout, it’s our favorite outdoor show, love it or hate it the Red Mile holds a special place in many of our hearts. Sales of our new World Cup Super Grip saddle were staggering; we are pleased to see that our customers really appreciate the quality and fit of our product(s). We traveled to the New England Morgan horse show, with an overnight stop in Saratoga, NY for a day at the races.
We then entered the homestretch of our summer show season, Walnut Hill Carriage driving show and Kentucky State Fair. These shows run back to back and its like going from the symphony to a rock concert, that’s how different the horses and people are. We almost washed away while packing up at Walnut Hill, our poor Coaching clients were stuck in the ring for their Appointments class, and all that beautiful harness was soaked. We moved ontoLouisville, to our biggest show of the year and the most entertaining for people watching. Our saddle was our biggest seller with show harness following closely behind. So now we take a breather before the fall shows take us out on the road again. Time finally for me to update about the World of Freedman’s and all the fabulous things that have gone on in the last year.
