The First Few Days

The boys enjoying some turnout with their hay balls-- I am trying anything and everything to keep them entertained

Hi everyone!
As was extensively requested (well by a few people at the very least!) I will be sharing my next 3 months of training, working, and all other kinds of things on here. First thing is first, some introductions:
My name is Brynne Varvel, I am 23 years old and from Bloomington Indiana. I have been riding since I was 5 years old, training dressage since I was 11, and started as a professional rider a little over a year ago. So far, I have competed two horses to the Intermediate 1 and another to the Prix St George with a number of others at various levels. This is my very first season in Wellington and it is made possible by a bunch of different people, but largely so by the D4K Christian Kennedy Memorial Fund Scholarship. For those who want to learn more about this scholarship click HERE for all the information! I am so grateful to have this opportunity to ride in memory of Christian. 
I am here in Wellington with two horses. Here is a bit about them:
Illuminator is a 2014 KWPN/ADHHA 16.2 black gelding who I have owned for the past 6 years. We have shown the Prix St George and are looking to develop all the small tour while we are here training. "Lumie" who also goes by the nicknames "Venomous" and "Richard" among others has a larger-than-life character and can be quite quirky. 
Montego Bay is a 2017 KWPN 16.3h brown(bay?) wannabe roan gelding who is owned by my parents. I remember "Monty" when he was just a small little guy just 2-3 weeks old. He was a sales horse who ended up staying and has continued to impress me as we have worked together. He is a bit behind in his training but is doing most of the 1st level work. Monty is quite cat like and is an extremely sensitive guy but has a lot of willingness to work for his person. 
Now for the actual update!
We(Lumie, Monty, my fiance, and me) left Bloomington on Thursday morning around 5am with just about a 9-10 hour drive ahead of us. Initially when we got on the road we had to work out some quirks in my new "rig"(my 20 year old trailer and bought off my parents truck). The camera system I purchased and my fiancé jury rigged, decided it needed to have the charge battery packs light on 24/7 to continue being functional, the trailer light plug would wiggle out after every big bump(if you are from north you know how awful some of those bridge interchanges can be), and then my back divider kept being pushed by poor Monty's butt leaning on it. After a bit we forced the plug to stay to keep the lights on and shoved as much "stuff"(and I do mean stuff-- a gushers box and a plastic braiding comb) we were back in go mode. Or so we thought. We hit traffic in Chattanooga and didn't get out of it until south of Atlanta, and then just when we thought we were home free we came around a curve on the interstate to see an RV on fire stopping traffic. Needless to say that by the time we got to the layover we were all exhausted. 
While the horses got nice stalls, we slept in the trailer to save a bit of $. I slept like the dead after the long stressful drive and got up the following morning feeling much better. Unfortunately, we did start off the second day a bit behind schedule. I hauled four year old Bob down to our layover at Southeastern Arena, and although he jumped right on my four horse slant the day prior he had determined he had had enough and that the 2 horse straight load was a no go for him. Thankfully after some time and opening the space of the trailer we were able to convince him that in fact he was almost home and the sooner he got on the sooner he would be done with the whole thing. Thankfully for us the 2nd day went much smoother and we arrived at our destination in Loxahatchee around 530pm. 
We unloaded as much as we could take and got the horses settled in and then caught up on some much-needed sleep. Thus far everyone has been so welcoming and helpful which gives me a huge sigh of relief. The boys are slowly settling in; Monty has decided he is BFF's with Lumie and apparently, they are in fact attached at the hip and every time Lumie leaves the barn it requires all kinds of being upset. They both are still very much stiff, tired, and on edge after the 1200 miles of travel and over 20 hours on the road.In addition, they both can be absolute menaces and can't seemingly leave anything that could be a "toy" alone so we have had to make some adjustments, but hopefully within the week they will become much more settled. I feel like a helicopter mom having gone from caring for these guys in every way ( feeding, cleaning, grooming, riding, cleaning and feeding again) to being in a boarding situation for the first time in 11 years is definitely a bit of an adjustment. 
This week is my period of major adjustments and scheduling. I start at least one of my jobs this week and then of course am going to try and take advantage of all the opportunities to educate myself while I am down here. Ill update more soon with hopefully some more interesting content and insight into everything I am learning while down here. I also thought of starting a TikTok( I know, I know) so you can see some of the inside look to being down here. We will see if I can figure that situation out! 

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Lumie showing off his latest fashion-- a bright pink fly sheet set. Monty got one too, just in Orange

Lumie and I had the prettiest spectators to our jog yesterday