So I decided to start this blog to share all the craziness that a 3 year American work visa can bring to a Whest of Ireland gill.
The brilliance about this visa is that I and fellow westie Shauna Finneran get to train and work for Pam Goodrich, a much sought after dressage clinician here in the US!
http://fostermeadow.com/about-pamela-goodrich/
Acquiring the visa took a good few months, plenty of tears, many a late night filling out forms and searching for the valid visa document requirements. I am here on an athlete visa sponsored by Pam to stay and work here for the next three years. While the visa process was tedious, drawn out and seriously upsetting at times it was undeniably worth it. It has always been my lifelong dream to be able to at least try and be the best dressage rider that I can be, and this was my once in a lifetime opportunity.
So I have been here in the US hitting on 6 months now and all the while I avoided writing a blog for the fear of actually having to start one! So I am going to give it a lash and I hope it will be easy enough reading.
First stop on our dressage journey was meeting the Foster Meadow team down in Wellington, FL. to spend the winter season. We landed in Boston, acquired a car with the extreme help from Shauna's uncle and we pegged it down I-95. Mind you pegging it still took us over 25 hrs driving :/ But the upside is... we are the proud owners of a Mini Cooper S Series!!! (Costs enough a month but hey, at least we look the part!)
With excitement and stiff behinds from the journey down, we hit Wellington with a bang and started work ASAP. Have not looked back since.
Here at Foster Meadow the winter season (Dec to Apr) is relocated to a base just outside Wellington, FL. in an exclusive equestrian community called White Fences. The rest is spent on Pam's Foster Meadow farm in Boscawen, NH. The two are just over 1500 miles apart!
Pam describes us as 'Assistant Trainers'. It is a very loose term as we also do all the daily barn chores and all else required in the running of the barn. However under her constant intruction we ride and train clients horses.
Pam teaches lessons daily, as well as training her staff and her client's horses. She herself rides and competes regularly. I groomed for her in numerous CDIs in Florida, which was just jaw dropping. I was in the thick of FEI rulings, great chances to spectate the top US and internatioanl dressage riders and the list just goes on! Plus spending the winter in above 20 degree celsius weather was bliss. To think I spent Christmas day sunning myself on the beach in West Palm Beach. So many stories to tell!
So therefore, I am going to enter separate entries to all the stuff we got up to in FL as it may just get too monotonous in the one entry. Plus I have to figure out someway to separate all the memories and events for myself! I am truly a disaster when organising all my photos etc. New laptop to help and I am still the biggest procrastinator
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