Jennifer's Rolex Adventure - Goodbye Rolex, Hello Reality

Well, I’ve been putting off writing this because then it means that Rolex really truly is over and I have to return to the real world full time.  Rolex this year was such an amazing time.  Thank you Ecogold for making this year so great.  I got to meet so many people, finally being able to see and talk to Patricia in person after conversing with her for weeks on facebook.  Meeting my fellow ammie bloggers, you guys are great and I’m looking forward to keeping up on your adventures throughout the year.  The people I met randomly out on course or in the grandstands.  I didn’t catch you name, but thank you to the very nice gentleman at the sunken road on cross country who let me sneak into the media only section with him.  I got some great photos of Hannah because of that.  The super nice Nan from eventingday.com, she was so interesting to talk to.  And I can’t wait to try the Flair strips on my horse; I’ll let you know how it works for her.   All the riders who took time out of their very busy weekend for us.  Emma Ford, who was probably busier than anyone keeping Phillip’s horses looking and feeling their best, thank you for taking a few minutes to talk to us.  Every single one of you made this weekend special for me. 

It was also the best learning experience for me.  And not just the obvious things like how to ride that combination or such.  But learning about true horsemanship.  Diana Burnett, making the decision to withdraw Manny when he didn’t feel quite right.  That had to be such a difficult thing to do after working so hard to get there.  But it was the right thing to do for Manny and I applaud her for that.  The poise and confidence of Mary King.  Going into show jumping sitting in both 1^st and 2^nd place had to have been nerve-wracking for her.  She didn’t let it show though.  She looked cool as could be. 

And Sinead Halpin, she is my new hero after this weekend.  I want to be her!  Something she said during her Q&A Sunday morning has really stuck with me.  She was talking about getting to the horse park and during the first part of the week she was pushing Tate to get to the next level, for everything to be perfect.  And Tate wasn’t too happy with that.  But then on Thursday she had the chance to take him to the ring and she said everyone else was practicing the movements but she was just riding around (in her own words) like a 12 year old girl.  Telling Tate, “Just be happy.  I want you to be happy.”  That’s what I want to strive for.  I find myself doing that so often when I get in the dressage ring.  I focus so much on wanting everything to be perfect, that I forget we have a much better ride when we are just relaxed and happy.  That’s going to be my new mantra when I go to shows: Just be happy. 

As great as it was to see Mary make history at Rolex, I think the highlight of the weekend for me was watching Sinead after her double clear show jumping round.  As she and Tate canter around the ring, Sinead trying not to cry, I found myself wiping tears away.  It was getting a little hard to hold the camera steady.  She has worked so hard to get here and it paid off in a big way.  To finish in 3^rd place in her first 4*, that’s just amazing.  It’s the stuff of dreams.  To be standing in the company of Mary King and William Fox-Pitt and knowing that you deserve to be there, it had to have been such an incredible feeling.  I was proud to have been there to witness it.  And feel, just the tiniest bit, a part of it.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Sinead, I’m sure it’s going to be great.

Sinead Halpin wiping off the tears

Once again thank you to Patricia and Ecogold.  It was an unforgettable experience for me.  And I hope we can do something like this again next year.  Only I’ll make sure I get a hotel with better internet access.  Tracy, we’ll have to work on that together.  Congratulations to everyone who competed.  You all are an inspiration to me.  Now it’s time for my show season to start and I’ve got a lot to live up to.

A victorious Mary King

Jennifer's Rolex Adventure - What a Finish

Sunday at Rolex is always a day of mixed emotions for me.  On one hand, I’m excited for show jumping but on the other hand it’s the last day for Rolex and I have to head back to the real world.  I don’t ever look forward to that.  This year, the show jumping was highly anticipated.  Would Mary King hold onto her 1, 2 lead?  How would the up and coming young, American riders in the top 10 finish?  Plus I had some exciting activities with Ecogold to look forward to in the morning.

I had planned to get over to the Horse Park to watch the second horse inspection.  But when I work up to rain and thunder I decided to skip it and sleep in a little longer.  I made my way over shortly before 10 to meet up at the Ecogold booth in the trade fair.  First up, a Q&A session with the fabulous Sinead Halpin.  Sinead talked a lot about her horse Tate and also what a typical day is like on her farm.

Meg Kepferle and Sinead Halpin

Next a visit from Diana Burnett for a Q&A session.  Unfortunately Diana had to withdraw Manny before cross country on Saturday.  Diana spoke about why she chose to withdraw and what’s up next for her and Manny.

Diana Burnett

Then we got to head over to the stabling area and we got the chance to meet the incredible Emma Ford and see Fernhill Eagle up close and personal.  Shared with us a little of her own history, life on Phillip’s farm and how he manages to always have such great event horses.

Time for a last look around the trade fair and then into our seats for show jumping.  The course was very fair.  Time good, only the real slow pokes seemed to accrue any time penalties and the rails were pretty spread out over all the fences.  As I’m sure everyone has heard by now, there was not much suspense going into the end of show jumping. Mary King jumped out of order with Fernhill Urco.  A double clear round guaranteed that Mary would be taking home the Rolex watch, the only question was with which horse.

William Fox-Pitt jumped a perfect , clear round, moving him up 2 places to finish in 4th.

William Fox-Pitt and Neuf des Coeurs

Sinead Halpin, who was so nice and genuine when we met that morning, also had a double clear round.  She finished her both her and Tate’s first 4*by adding only a few time penalties to her dressage score.  It was also enough to move her up to 3rd place and make her the highest placing American rider.  Congrats Sinead, you deserve every bit of it!

Sinead Halpin and Manoir de Carneville

Finally Mary King entered the ring on King Temptress.  Although she later admitted to being nervous, Mary looked cool as could be.  The mare’s unusual jumping style caused me at least to have a few gasps, sure that they would knock a rail.  But she finished with all the rails still firmly in the cups and no time penalties on the clock.  Mary had made history as the only rider to place 1st and 2nd at the Rolex Kentucky event.  It was an incredible end to a great weekend.  Hard to believe it all happened so quickly and once again it was time for me to start the 6 hour drive home.

Mary King and King Temptress

Sarah's Rolex Wrap up.

Emma Ford and Fernhill Eagle - photo by Tracy Porter

Well by now you all know the results of Sunday's thrilling show jumping. With Mary King placing 1 and 2 and Ecogold's on Sinead Halpin taking the 3rd place spot it was an exciting day to be sure. My favorite round (aside from the three mentioned above) were Kelly Prather's clean round to start the day and watching Snip cruise around the SJ in good style! 

I think the thing that myself and others love about Joe Meyer and Snip is their love for the sport. It really resonated with the crowd, the horse still loves his job at some 19 years of age and they received one of the loudest cheers of the day! With the exception of Wonderful Will (who did not present) all the horses passed the jog. There was a tense moment when Hamish Cargill and Sandhills Tiger were held, but luckily they passed on re inspection. Obviously Mark Todd decided not to jump his mount Grass Valley but when all was said and done it was a great end to a great weekend!

Phillip Dutton's Fernhill Eagle - photo by Tracy Porter

In addition to all the great jumping action Ecogold set up a pretty cool treat for some of the bloggers. We were able to meet and talk to Phillip Dutton's wonderful groom, Emma Ford. Thank you Emma for taking time out of a busy day to chat with us! (and also for letting us meet Fernhill Eagle...what a nice looking guy he is!) Emma told us a bit about how she came to work for Phillip, what they do to take care of Fernhill Eagle post XC (sounds like lots of icing and hand walking are involved!) among other things. She stays plenty busy taking care of a barn full of top class event horses!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Sunday (I was afraid that Camera + Rain = No Good) but I believe some of my fellow bloggers were taking some and may have those to share.

Thank you for joining me and the wonderful Ecogold on this journey to Rolex 2011. I hope everyone enjoyed the event as much as I did! Best of luck recovering from the post-3 day doldrums (where we realize that we have to go back to work so that we can afford to come back to Rolex next year!) Thanks everyone!

~ Sarah

Jennifer's Rolex Adventure - Cross Country Day!

Well my time in Kentucky has ended.  As I write this I'm back home in Pittsburgh and what a let down it is to have to go back to work in the morning.  But first (since I finally have working internet again!) I've got two more exciting days at Rolex to talk about. 

Saturday, cross country day.  Undoubtedly the day we all look forward to the most.  The day turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm.  The footing seemed to be pretty decent, a little squishy in places but over all not too bad considering.  At promptly 10:00 Allison Springer headed out of the start box.  She looked great over the first fence, but it wasn't to be her weekend.  The course seemed to ride well.  And although there were a lot of problems on course, no single fence was the cause.  Some surprising pairs did not complete cross country, but the ones who did finished looking great. 

We saw Phillip Dutton early in the course.  Eagle was looking full of jump over the second fence.

Hannah Sue Burnett looked great through through the sunken road.  And still going strong a few fences later at the step table after the head of the lake. 

Luckily I didn't witness any of the falls this year, although I did catch a few of the run-outs, including Mark Todd's at the angled brushes.  After walking the entire course, I stayed at the covered bridge at the very end for a few riders, where I got to chat with a couple of very nice ladies for a bit.  And I got a couple free samples of Flair strips.  Score!  Can't wait to try those out on my mare.  I caught Hamish Cargill at the covered bridge, still looking great at the end of the course.

Eventually I moved on and parked by the farm yard for the remainder of the riders.  I had a great spot to photograph and saw Mary King navigate the combination beautifully.

Sadly Friday's leader had some problems on course, including a fall (everyone OK) but that left the door open for the incredible Mary King to sweep into both the 1 and 2 spots.

Stadium Jumping: Girl Power!

I have a confession: when I heard the rolling thunder and saw the flashes of lightening when the alarm went off this morning after the alarm went off, I couldn’t help myself….I decided to wait for the SJ in the afternoon.

I understand a couple horses, including Mark Todd’s horse, withdrew before SJ; I think the XC course took a heavy toll on some horses and riders who might not have anticipated the necessary fitness. I think several of the rails we saw tumbling today could be attributed to fatigue.

Luckily, though, the sun broke through the clouds and SJ was beautiful.



Heather Morris on Slate River

Heather Morris, the TX hero, went early, but I was INCREDIBLY proud of her; she road Slate River beautifully, and she was the first rider to have a double clear.

Hannah Burnett also went double clear….well done, Hannah!






Mary King on Fernhill Urco

Probably the “golden girls” of the day, however, were Mary King, who ended up first AND second on two very different horses (shows what a horsewoman she is!), and Sinead Halpin, who ended up THIRD in her very first 4****! Go GIRLS!





Sinead Halpin on MANOIR DE CARNEVILLE

Thanks to my brother and sister in law for housing us, and to Patricia and Ecogold for giving me the opportunity to meet Hannah Burnett, for the HRN spot, and for the great Q&A sessions….and thanks to Cynthia for trekking to KY with me. We both noted that we have lots of inspiration for riding now. Here’s to next year!

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.

Sarah's Saturday XC Impressions

WOW! is all I can say about the course. It was seriously influential today. I would be interested to see how the stat's from previous years stack up against today because it felt like there were quite a number of issues. That said, there were also some really fabulous rides. Mary King is an obvious one! As a kid I had a Mary King's Eventing Stable computer game that my sister and I would spend hours playing. So, understandably, I was thrilled to see her go around in such great style!

Mary King on Cross Country.

Another ride I loved was Jessica Phoenix and Exponential. That horse has some serious hops. Not to mention she looked thrilled to be out there riding him around the course.

<- Jessica and Exponential getting ready to jump the double brush towards the end of the course!

I was worried for a little bit that we would be seriously missing out on horse Show Jumping tomorrow with all the R/W/E's. As it is I am looking forward to a great day of jumping tomorrow.

Best of luck to the competitors tomorrow. My condolences to those whose day's didn't go to plan and better luck next time out!

Tracy's Friday Rolex (just a little bit late!)

I feel like the M.I.A. blogger!! Due to a series of epic FAILS, I find myself sitting in a McDonald's writing my Friday blog on Saturday!
First and foremost, I hope that everyone has safe clean rides today and also a whole lot of fun!
Walking the course with Jessica Hampf yesterday I realized many things about the sport I love. Not only do you need to be incredibly fit to ride these horses but you need to be incredibly fit to walk a four star course! Jessica was FABULOUS about explaining the jumps, the quality of gallop she looked for between fences, and the canter she wants before her take-off point. Jessica made me feel like a friend, not a guest as she patiently answered all of my questions. I asked her what she thought of the course and she told me that it was a "Trevor" kind of course.

While my experience yesterday did not go the way I planned, I learned that it is impossible to have a bad time at Rolex and sometimes plan B is better than the best laid plan A. I did not see a single Dressage ride in it's entirety, but I spent a lot of time in the warm up. Spending time there gave me a better feel for what the riders are like as people, not just the well oiled machines we see in the arena. Some spent the entire time with lots of warm up, perfecting every movement that would be asked while some worked for a shorter time and let their horses relax. I watched grooms and coaches bustle around while horses patiently stood for the final preps. Sinead Halpin was especially nice, chatting with people and allowing a few to pet Tate before she finished her warm-up. The rest of my Friday experience was spent doing large amounts of shopping and helping to support our equestrian economy! Festin will be so happy when I come home with all of his new gear, especially his new ECOGOLD cross-country boots!

Sinead Halpin & Manoir De Carneville (Tate)
Oh and I almost forgot to mention one of my other highlights, a personal introduction to Peter Atkins and a nice chat about his riding & his amazing horse Henny.

I will add an album to Facebook once I stop at Wal-Mart for a new card reader, just another one of my epic FAILS yesterday!

Sarah's Dressage Day 2 recap and more!

Whew! As you can see from my fellow Ammy Blogger's posts it was an exciting day of dressage at Rolex 2011! It seems that the grey horses dominated! (which is fine by me, they need some compensation for all the extra time spent bathing!) I have taken over 400 pictures... yea excessive I know. But I will be posting those of the Ecogold riders on their facebook page so stay tuned for that later this evening!

I think my favorite ride of the day (and there were many great ones!) would have to be Joe Meyer (NZL) and Snip. I read an article about their relationship recently in the April 25 edition of The Chronicle (http://www.chronofhorse.com/) and just loved their story. Such a wonderful and long lasting partnership!

From Q&A sessions (see below for video footage) with a number of great riders to course walks there was definitely no shortage of things to do. I really enjoyed the course walk that I went on with riders Allison Springer, Sinead Halpin, and Rebecca Howard (I believe there were other riders but they were switching off and we bailed out a bit early to get to the Q&A session with the Canadian riders.)

Boyd at a Q&A session this afternoon

One thing I found interesting was that all the riders seemed to think the footing would play a major role in tomorrow's cross country. Obviously footing is important, but I would have thought that it is better to have some great footing and some bad than alot of mud. Apparently this is not always the case. A couple of the riders on the course walk mentioned that it is more difficult for the Horses to transition from one type of footing to another. All the riders were interesting and encouraged those of us on the course walk to ask questions. It was definitely fun to hear more about the riders, their horses and their background and to see the course before the start of XC competition tomorrow!

Is Sinead telling us how to ride the jump...or showing us her dance moves?

All in all a great day! Best wishes for clean, fast, and safe rides for everyone tomorrow!

Hey..That doesn't look like an event horse? Nope it is one of the competitors at the Kentucky Reining Cup!

Stop at the ECOGOLD Booth Tomorrow for Q&A's: Karen O'Connor and Hamish Cargill

Patricia and the great people at ECOGOLD have been working extra hard to keep everyone up to date on the latest happenings at Rolex. They have also set up some AMAZING question and answer sessions with some of the top riders.

If you are at Rolex on Thursday April, 28th make sure to stop by the ECOGOLD booth (in the trade fair arena upstairs near the Media center, booth #69) to be a part of the Q&A sessions. During the afternoon dressage break Karen O'Connor will be answering your questions and at 5:30pm Hamish Cargill will do the same! ECOGOLD needs you to help with the questions, don't miss this great opportunity!

Stay tuned for more Q&A times throughout the weekend! Friday has Phillip Dutton at a TBA time in the morning and Boyd Martin at 1:00pm.

Oh, and if you see Patricia at the booth make sure to give her a huge thanks for all of her hard work!

Hannah Burnett answers questions during the Wednesday session!

Tracy's Rolex: I can hardly wait!!

I am counting down the hours and minutes until Friday when we enter the front gates of the Kentucky Horse Park and start a whirlwind three day weekend. First stop? The ECOGOLD booth to meet up with the wonderful Patricia and hopefully some of my fellow bloggers (and to pick up my pre-ordered cross country boots!!!!!)!

When I ordered this years Rolex tickets during the WEG pre-sale it seemed like the last weekend in April was light-years away. During the last week or so things seem to have moved in warp speed and I find myself in a frenzy of doing laundry, charging batteries and triple checking that all memory cards are working and empty, and studying the ever changing Kentucky weather in an attempt to be somewhat informed as I toss things from my spring, summer, fall, and winter wardrobe into a bag. Like Holly, I too suffer from F.O.M.S. and have spent hours reading the COTH Jimmy Wofford Rolex preview and every EN, Twitter, Facebook, and blog post about Rolex.

I am now only a good-nights sleep, a 12 hour workday, and an almost seven hour rental car ride away! Who would have thought that it will actually be cheaper for us to rent an economy car and pay for it's gas than to keep filling the tank of an F250 Super Duty?


Better finish packing and go spend a little time with my horse, Festin, since he will be "abandoned" for the weekend! I actually think he will be happy to be spared from the embarrassing de-spooking work that would have been planned (see photo to right)!

Tracy

Sarah's Rolex - It is time to Pack!

My journey to Rolex will officially begin in 2 days! This means it is time to get packing...something a venture to the horse park seems to require a lot of. Rain clothes, cold weather clothes (in case either Kentucky or the Hotel decide to be freezing...) and plenty of warm weather clothes... and shoes. If there is one thing I have learned in my previous trips to the horse park it is that you will not survive if you don’t have comfortable shoes!

Also essential to getting ready to leave is to make sure I have my shopping list! I was a bit disappointed with the shopping at WEG last fall, but am hoping that being in such an eventing heavy setting I will find what I need! Not that you can’t find stirrup leathers just about anywhere. :/ . In light of the ‘impending college graduation’ I have limited my list to the things I actually NEED. (and since I realized the other day that my leathers would probably have gotten me expelled from pony club they are going on the list!) Also on the list is a new helmet and a mega millions winning lottery ticket so I can get the stuff on my ‘I want but don’t need’ list!

Also important in pre-rolex preparations is finding someone to hack my ‘pony’ while I am away. Lucky for me I have sisters who ride and a horse who is level headed enough I won’t worry about either of them heading out together! (Though I will admit I bribed them with promises of picking up extra barn chores if they help me out!)

Finally, one of the most important parts of planning any road trip... reliable(ish) transportation... hmmm that might be a problem. Luckily I though of that possible snafu further than 2 days in advance. Since neither Kyra (my fellow rolex road tripper) nor I would consider our cars ‘reliable’ and the lack of Air Conditioning in mine makes long trips something less than comfortable we are borrowing a car! (Thank goodness for parents with nicer cars, and who care enough not to send us off knowing we may not reach our destination!).

So clothes are packed, shopping lists are made, pony will be ridden, and there is a good chance we will arrive without multiple calls to AAA! All thats left between us and that beautiful Kentucky bluegrass are a few remaining final exams. Bring it on!

I wonder if we will see any of the WEG jumps (like the one above) used in Rolex this year?

Cheryl & Calina: Bragging Rights Never Hurt Anyone

Cheryl
During our blogger introductions, Calina mentioned that we follow North American eventing like "some people" follow hockey, football or basketball. Just as those people get hockey pools, March Madness brackets and Proline, we have pools for major three-days. "Some people" may consider this weird, but we think it makes the events even more fun (who knew that was even possible?)!

We have decided to include the link to our pool (yes, we are Canadian) in case any of you would like to join in the fun. While there are no official prizes, just bragging rights, we recommend challenging a fellow eventer to a friendly wager. I might as well mention that Calina is in fact 2-0 in pools so far, but I'm feeling lucky for Rolex 2011!!

I'm off to pack - rainsuit, winter jacket, fleece, windbreaker, Dubarrys, shorts, flip flops... I think I need to have all my bases covered looking at the weather forecast.

Calina
I am also packing enough clothing to cover just about any weather eventuality and would like to request that all fellow Rolex attendees make sure to pack all their rain gear. If we all come prepared, the rain will realize that it shouldn’t even bother trying to ruin the weekend, right? Either way, we’ll be there enjoying it all, but I’d prefer to not revisit the rain seen at Rolex in 2002. Much as it was neat to watch Bruce Davidson and Little Tricky jump around that day, I don’t want to ruin another pair of perfectly good shoes. Some of us don’t own Dubarry boots!

Cheryl and I are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning and, if all goes well, we will be on the ground in Kentucky by mid-afternoon. We hope to report in shortly after the first horse inspection. In the meantime, I hope all the equines stay safe and sound.

Photo taken by Calina of Ecogold rider Diana Burnett at Bromont CCI*** 2010.