Jennifer's Rolex Adventure-The Very Late Dressage Recap



Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Eagle



I feel like such a horrible blogger. But the internet at my hotel is practically non existent! Anyway onto the Rolex fun.

Well it's been a fun two days of some really great dressage. It's also been a long couple of days. We made it down to Kentucky very early Thursday morning so I was going into dressage day one with very little sleep. Unfortunately I didn't get to see as much dressage as I would have liked but I still was able to see some great rides. First thing Thursday morning I was able to hang out by the warm up and watch Allison Springer, Phillip Dutton, Mary King and Jessica Phoenix. During the morning break I headed over to the Ecogold booth to finally met Patricia in person.

We unfortunately got stuck in some traffic when we went to check into the hotel during the lunch break so I did miss Boyd's ride just after the break, but I was able to take my seat for the rest of the afternoon. There were some really nice rides in the afternoon, including Heather Morris with Slate River. All too soon the first day of Rolex came to an end.



Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister



Friday morning started with a trip to Keeneland to watch the morning workouts, something that has become a tradition in the last few years. It's pretty fun to stand at the rail and pick out the ones we'd like to turn into event horses. Then we headed over to the horse park in time to watch Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master. They were having a beautiful test, but a couple of bobbles at the canter hurt their score. Then in came Tiana Courday and Ringwood Magister and I could not take my eyes off of them. They had a perfect test and rightfully so took the lead from Allison Springer. The rest of the morning saw some great rides from Karen O'Connor, Mark Todd, and Clayton Fredericks.

Mary King and Fernhill Urco

After the lunch break came some riders that I was super excited to see: Hamish Cargill, Sinead Halpin, Missy Ransenhousen, Mary King and William Fox-Pitt. After following Hamish at the World Equestrian games last fall, I was looking forward to seeing him ride. And he really did have a lovely test. He scored at 51.3 to put him in 14^th place. Very respectable placing and he should be able to move up if he jumps clean. Missy Ransenhousen had a nice test as well. I always enjoy seeing them go, Critical Decision reminds me a lot of one of our horses. And then Mary King. I don't know what to say about her. I've wanted to see her ride for so long and I wasn't disappointed. Quite impressive to sit both 2^nd and 4^th at Rolex.

We finished up the day with a little bit of shopping in the trade fair and then headed over for a night of reining in the new Alltech Arena. So cool to watch something that seems like it would be totally different, but really it was dressage in a western saddle.