Final Countdown to the CCI*

Farrah's USEF National Passport

I applied for Farrah's passport in mid-January, after reading online at usef.org that you should plan on three months to get a national passport.  Sometimes I am not so good at the planning part, but I decided if we really were thinking of ending the spring season with a CCI*, I didn't want the lack of a national passport to be the deciding factor!  I applied, paid the fee, paid to upgrade Farrah to USEF Life and low and behold, I got a passport two weeks later.  Cool!  Then I sat down to read the accompanying material and it was a bit of OMG.  Series of shots, ok.  Proof of said shots with stamps, a microchip, markings to fill in, send it back for approval.........I called my friend Jody (owner of Cindy) and said you really do need to get on it, the USEF is not kidding when they say it might take awhile!

I called my vet, and he came for the first series of shots and to microchip.  First, he had the wrong brand of microchip, then the wrong stamp (no address, USEF needs vet address on stamp).  Fast forward a week, we got the right stamp!  Yay!  Then we wait until we have the right number of days between the shots, do round two of shots and have the proper microchip installed.....Good.  Stamp passport, sign everything, all set, right? 

Then the vet and I get to the markings we have to fill out on the passport.  My vet says to me I hope you have lots of practice paper :0  What an excercise that turned out to be!  And my friend Jody is asking what is so hard, Cindy has only her star?  Ahem, Jody, what about the small scar on her hock, the white hairs on her lower lip, the cyst on her shoulder!  Confering with vet/USEF and yes, all that has to be on Cindy's passport.  I made the judgement call with all of Farrah's markings to fax some attempts to the ever patient Emily at USEF.  Finally we were in agreement with the FEI language (no socks/stockings, you have to describe the white markings with correct anatomical placement) that the vet could mark up the official passport and send it in for approval.  That was last week (only 2 1/2 weeks prior to the CCI*!).  I got said passport in the mail today. 

I also forgot about the FEI number, until the show secretary sent me the nicest email reminder that she had not gotten an FEI number from my entry.  I logged on to USEF and presto, the one thing that was easy, fifteen minutes later Farrah has an FEI number.

So, are we ready?  Apparently not completely as far as Lauren is concerned.  Now, I know that Farrah's tail is a bit on the wild side.  I have so far resisted Lauren's efforts to have me conform to the eventing tradition of pulling the sides of Farrah's tail.  I am not sure why I resisted, but I loved her full wild tail.  Lauren was not keen on jogging down the path with "that tail".  Sigh.  I had Kat come over and try to pull Farrah's tail the proper way.  Can we say "Epic Fail"?  Since losing Kat's head to a hoof is not in the plan,  Kat resorted to clippers.  Below is the finished product:

Farrah's tail looks great from the back, but from the side, with the lighter flaxen hairs shaved off, the sides of her tail are an odd cream color.  It looks like we bleached her tail bone on the sides.  Who knows, maybe that will grow on me? 

Only one week left before we ship out to Ocala, and in between then and now we have a stadium school with Debbie Stephens, a XC school with Leslie Law and final dressage tune-up with Bill Woods.  Let the bleeding of the bank of Beth begin!