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!

Becky's Day Two "Quickies"

I felt like a celebrity this morning….I got to be a guest on the Horse Radio Network! That’s right: I was interviewed by none other than Glenn the Geek himself. Jimmy Wofford was the guest before me….so in a way, my day was book-ended by JW! Here’s Glenn and Jen:



After my brush with radio stardom, we settled down to watch dressage, and I was able to see Hannah Sue Burnett put in a respectable dressage test.



We ended up making sure we knew what was in the trade fair soon after, and we missed Tiana Coudray’s first place dressage score….drat! But we watched Mary King’s ride, and it was phenomenal.



As always, Jimmy Wofford’s coursewalk was 20 minutes after dressage….and as always, that gave me about 30 minutes to watch and learn from “the Woff” before I had to attend my fence judge meeting. Just a few gems: “The first three fences are designed to get the butterflies in the rider’s stomachs flying in formation. Then they get to fence four. Fence four isn’t a fence; it’s a condominium!”

I LOVE JIMMY WOFFORD!!



At the fence judge briefing, I ran into my good friend Nancy, a fellow fence judge since my first time six years ago. It was nice to catch up!

Tomorrow I’ll be at fence 26. Good luck to all the riders!

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!

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.