Bonus Episode: Live at Blue Ridge Classic, with Andrea Harry

Alex Husner 0:02

Welcome to The Long Ride Home. I'm your host, Alex Huisner. This show is about honoring where we come from, pursuing what still calls us forward, and trusting the power of timing in both life and in sport. Through honest conversations with riders, trainers, and leaders in the American saddlebred world, we'll explore the stories behind the horses and the people shaping the future of this industry. Come on this journey with me. Hi, welcome back to the Long Ride Home. I'm your host, Alex Huisner. And the episode that you're about to hear was filmed on site at the Blue Ridge Classic in Asheville a couple weeks ago. And we had a chance to sit down, Andrea Harry and I, who's Chapstick's trainer, after his show ring debut, and we talk about all the things that were part of that experience. And it was just, it was incredible. It was so exciting. But you know, Andrea has played a huge role in getting us where we are right now. And it's really crazy to actually think about we just bought him in January, and he was very green. When I look back at videos now, I knew he wasn't finished, but it wasn't just that he wasn't finished, he was very green, and he's I don't think he's as green now, but he's still not finished. He's still, he's just a baby. And we are learning and growing every day, and it's just been such a fulfilling process to see it come to life. But uh, we recorded this after the debut. So you're hearing this from a very specific moment in the journey, and I thought that was important to capture. And you know, at the end of the day, this show it's not about just me getting in the show ring, it's about the relationship between a horse, a rider, and a trainer. And the whole journey is about that and and everything it takes to build something meaningful together. And I'm just very grateful. So here's my conversation with Andrea Harry of Meraki Farm.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Chapstick's trader, Andrea Harry. I'm back. So good to see you. Good to see you guys. And we're also joined by Chapstick himself. Chapstick, would you like to say something? Kinda. Where's the tongue? Where's the tongue? Let's see the tongue. He's very interested in the microphone. This was a huge thing for all of us because this was Chapstick's big debut. You brought him last Thursday. What did you think? He's listening. He's listening. Chapstick had a great time. He was a very good boy. He has more developing to do, but don't tell him that because he thinks he's the best horse in the ring. But no, it was a really good experience for him. He was happy to go in and he was happy to come out. So we had fun and we learned a lot. You connected us with a horse communicator. Yes. We talked to a psychic. Well, we talked to Chapstick, actually. Through through her, yeah. Through her. And um, big, big personality in him. He's very proud of who he is. Yeah. We asked him some pretty, I mean, honestly, the things she said she would not have known. Chapstick has been wearing his show bridle for like a month and is still learning to wear it. And that's why we showed at the fun show to see where he really is in public because Chapstick gives a hundred percent at home, and he usually gives about 110 to 20% in public. And the first thing she said to us was he's still learning to buckle up and carry himself where he's supposed to do or supposed to and do all of his gates. And I was like, this is legit. Yeah, yeah. We look back to the videos of him in February, and it's like, oh my god, he looks like a different horse. The fact that we're even here with him, yeah, is cool. That says a lot about his work ethic. Yeah. Well, and yours too. I mean, like we've been working hard. You know, working hard. Yeah. And he makes it so much fun. He does. He makes he's cool to be around. He makes he's around. He's like literally just life is great. Yeah. Like a big dog. Oh two caps. Yeah. Afterwards, we finished with with her. I was in a stall, and he was just, he was standing up sleeping. Like, I mean, he was exhausted. I think because like he just communicated through her and he's like, oh my god, I just told them everything. Like, I told him everything. My mind's already blown. And then I I talked to them. It's cool. We were talking to Brett Day about it, who's a big believer in this, and he's big into quantum physics, and really it's like it's like tapping into another realm of reality, the universe. And I have friends and uh myself, I'm interested in this stuff too. So it all tracked and lined up with us, and we had a really great time. The barn is mostly a lot of young horses, which I've shared that on the show before. But what's it like showing young horses at a show? It's a lot of work. It's very exciting. Yeah, it's very exciting. I've cleared out the warm-up ring a couple of times this week, and it's just you have to start somewhere. And a lot of people who have bought horses from me, they've seen me have bad rides and they've seen me go on and we we get better and better and better. But if I know the product's there, I'm gonna see it through. And that's what I've done a lot of really this year, but so many young horses, and the ones that I have here this week that have been with me at shows in the past, I'm really proud of what we've accomplished. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and it's just like it's young horses, they're learning how to be show horses, and it's fun to like build their confidence up. And it's frustrating when you don't get that. It's frustrating when you're like, why don't you know how bright you are? Yeah. Because they're not all chapstick, they're some of them are like meek and like bashful, and you gotta like pump them up. I want a horse that you know, a show horse is the they call our saddlebred the peacock of the show ring. They're proud to go in the show ring, they they look into the show ring and I want my horses to be these guys. Yeah. And when they're not, you have to make them feel special. And that's the one thing I can say about training young horses is you can never take away their sparkle too soon, especially like because that that confidence goes within their whole career. Yeah. You teach them when they're young, like how special they are, and then you can train on them and put the miles on them without taking that away. It's kind of cool to watch them develop and hold on to that confidence. And well, it is, it takes it really experienced training young horses to be able to do that, and I to know that. And we met these really, really nice two ladies out of Indianapolis. I bet he's gonna start to know when he goes to the back that they have these force equine ice cream cones that you are US EF approved, and oh my god, he went crazy for them. They have grain in them, it looks like a little sugar cone, and he really liked it. So let's go with the pick ones in the back. Which one do we want?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Okay.

Alex Husner 7:26

We had a blast, we got to hang out, we went downtown to Asheville, just had a lot of fun, and coming to see him every morning makes me want to buy a house in Cartersville, so I can do this every day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Every morning before dinner, yeah, after dinner, after dinner, yeah. Exactly. We were here a lot. Storm, rain or shine. Rain or shine, anything for chapstick. Anything for chapstick. But thank you for everything this week. It's been a ton of fun. Um thank you guys. We're excited for the next one. So everyone, this has been it's great to have people who trust the process. Yeah, the process is what makes it fun. Because sometimes the process is processing and it's it's stressful, but it's nice to have people that know that it's they're alive. Well, and we always say like you can't connect the dots until you're further along to look back, and then you see like where the dots all align. But it's like, you know, we're gonna look back on this a year from now, two years, two years from now, and be like, oh my gosh, like those were the early days. Yeah, even such a big thanks for tuning in, everybody, till the next war show.