Weekend in numbers: Horse blogger edition

10: Number of hours it took me to drive to Austin (normally 7.5). Thanks, Dallas! When you knew snow was coming and decided to not treat the roads, that was a great decision. Also the number of times I burst into hysterical laughter over the road conditions. (The most hysterical was when I was creeping along at 15 miles per hour on a sky-high, snow covered overpass in downtown Dallas.)

9: Number of cheeses Lauren and I brought to dinner on Saturday night. I demanded she take me to the original Whole Foods in Austin; when we arrived, I gleefully pawed through the extensive cheese case, saying things like "I don't remember how to pronounce this, but I had it in cheese of the month club once and it was REALLY GOOD! We have to buy it!"

There's a BAR IN THE WHOLE FOODS

8: Number of alcoholic beverages consumed over the weekend, which is 8 more than I've had in the last three months. Whee!

7: Number of totally awesome bloggers met this weekend: Lauren of She Moved to Texas, Laura of Don't Eat the Paint, Genny from A Gift Horse, Jen of Cob Jockey, Jen of Wyvern Oaks, Karen of Bay With Chrome, and Amanda of The $900 Facebook Pony. Bonus participants included Jen of Wyvern Oaks' husband and her friend FuzzyPony, Lauren's husband, and Laura's husband.

6: Number of times I had to stop myself from buying a sun shirt at Dover Austin. There were so many colors! I just repeated my mantra: "You work at a tack store. You work at a tack store."

I like to think of visiting other stores as recon work.

5: Number of adorable dogs met. Seriously, go visit the Austin group just for the dogs. They're so cute and friendly.

Top left: Pascale; Top right: BT; Bottom left: Elias; Bottom right: Gus. Not
pictured is Lauren's Springer Spaniel Eliot. They're all great!

4: Number of times I regretted not bringing my long underwear. It was seriously cold on Saturday! Happily, I had a Paddington Bear to snuggle for part of the morning.

No naps for this pony, ONLY SNUGGLES

3: Number of times I made Jen and her husband explain medieval saddlery and riding to me on Saturday night, because I was totally fascinated by it (and they were incredibly knowledgeable).

2: Number of horses I got to ride! I had a quick bareback spin on adorable Paddy and I got to try my hand at jousting on the very large and very forgiving Brego! Jousting is hard, y'all.

Jen instructing CWD Warrior Jen on how to hold the lance.

1: Number of times I suggested to Johnny that we move to Austin, because all the horse people I met were spectacular and, you know, the Whole Foods has a wine bar inside it!

It was a very fun weekend and I'm so glad I went! Many thanks to Lauren, who was a gracious hostess and let me sleep in her house, as well as to Jen, who was extremely hospitable! I can't wait Horse Bloggers Weekend 2016! (T-shirts? We need t-shirts next year, yes?)