I just read  the 2010 WEG Eventing Course Walk With Boyd Martin | The Chronicle of the Horse. and I’m delighted to learn that I’m not the only one who walked around that course thinking it looks big!

I’m back in the tack at home now and it is really good to be on the back of a horse again.  We arrived home about 4:30 last night and Jay and I instantly got the major things out of the car and went immediately outside to enjoy the beautiful evening.  I hopped on Eddie and had a wee gallop  in the newly harvested soybean fields.  Great footing.  Nothing like a gallop on a 17h thoroughbred to clear the mind after a 10.5 hour car ride.

Then I swung a leg over Elliot the wonder warmblood.  A friend dropped in during my ride and we we talking while I was warming him up in walk, then some walk lateral work and then into trot.  I was emulating the quiet hands and relaxed backs of the riders I’d been watching for the last two days.  When we picked up a trot, my friends said, “Wow, even the first step was elastic and lovely.”

I don’t think I could have dreamed of a nicer thing for her to have said.  I’ll keep working.  I’ll keep channeling Edward Gal and Steffen Peters and remembering that even Boyd Martin thinks the course looks big the first time he looks at it.

It was after 5 in the evening when we got out on the cross country course to see the first half of it, that I hadn’t seen on the first day.  If you recall, Jay had walked that while I was watching one of the reining sessions, so he was a little giddy in explaining what was coming up for each fence we were approaching.  Sort of like seeing a movie with someone who has already seen it and can’t help but add hints throughout to their hapless friend: “oh, here comes a good part” or “you’ll never guess what happens next.”  I know what happens next to me anyway, it makes me want to ditch the tour guide and walk the course alone.  But, alas, I signed the “’til do us part” contract, so walk it with Mr. Information Please Almanac it was.

On the way out to the course we passed lots of European riders out grazing their horses.  Almost all of them were smoking, so we had to conclude that this was actually a cigarette break disguised as grazing.  The back 40 at KHP are about the only place on the park they could get away with lighting up.  Too funny.

As I mentioned the other day, it has been dry in Kentucky.  The park staff have been watering the galloping lanes, which have been roped off for over a year, to maintain the integrity of the footing.  I took this picture to help you see how much of a difference it has made in the grass.  You can see it in the background of several upcoming pictures too.  Though I did walk right on the galloping lane, up to the Hollow for the blog earlier this week, I didn’t do that for other pictures because I recognize that the less human traffic on the galloping lanes the better for the horses.  Also, if other people see us staying outside the ropes, they may decide to too.  However, we had to cross over the galloping lane several times in our course walk today.  We did so at designated crossings, and when we did so, we could definitely feel a spring to the turf that does not exist where the drought has been allowed to run its course.  All the dragging hoses and sprinklers and watering and care has worked wonders.

This area was an oasis of green.  This is the first water.  The stouter log on the right is the AB, the option is to jump the frog going away from the water, take a right and drop into the water over the ascending rails.

The C element Trout can be seen on the left side of this picture and then the last element was what we think is a prehistoric trout-eating bird.

As we were walking, we saw one of the 4-in-hands out for a hack in the back of the park.   Their spare horse apparently has to pull his own carriage for the trip.

Here is fence two.  I love its shape.  Seems pretty jumpable.

On any horse who believes he can fly.

Through the miracle that is the Kentucky Horse Park, the jump that I showed you on Sunday that was a wee bit airy got a bit less airy.

They must really have good fertilizer to grow little shrubs that quickly.

Next we came across the coffin complex.

This shot is showing 7A, direct route.  Seven B is the ditch  that you can’t see, and the C element is one of the pair of corners that forms a diamond on the right side.  The jump on the left is the longer route A element, B is the ditch and it shares the same diamond corner option for the C.

Marathon hazard with sprinklers going

After this very pretty A element near the stone wall wishing well complex,riders had a choice of taking a quick right over an immense concrete and stone, 90 degree corner or taking the longer route of jumping a stone wall, quick right and back over the wall at another place.  I didn’t take a picture of the wall because I would have had to march right over the turf for full effect.  You will have to trust me that it was HUGE.

Speaking of huge, here is another diamond shaped corner option,

this one with a cute little cabin in the middle.  Yeeha.

Marathon obstacle with a water splash.

This is the third water.

Those hedges are big and the second fence is eyebrow shaped, encouraging a run-out.  This particular fence is late on course and horses and riders are tired, so it will be a challenge for some.

How about some downhill, angled, related-distance FEMA-housing-sized obstacles as 23 and 24?  Why yes, thank you,  I’ll take two.

This little chalet at 25 looks friendly enough

Until you see how wide it is

Warning:  If jumping over ditches keeps you awake on Friday night before XC day, so not look at the next several pictures.  Here is the in, right or left, you choose.

Here is the direct route out.

The indirect route is on the other side and somewhat less impressive but also less convenient to the track.

Here is a look at the ditch complex so that you can see how they are related.

Sorry this bridge over a ditch is a little fuzzy.  D’oh!

What I think is hysterical is that somebody, if not all the major players, are going to come down to this fence during the course walk and consider it a “let up” fence.  For them, it is.

Last fence.

The signs say “Do not mess with the apples or our volunteers will cry because they had to make 3 trips to Kroger for the right number of each color of apples” or something similar, in 4 languages.

Thus ended our trip to the WEG 2010.  It was a lovely trip and I am grateful to Purina for providing it.  Purina can also provide the best nutrition for your horses.  My horses have been running beautifully on it for years.  Their research and product line are unsurpassed.

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I just had a few minutes this morning before dressage started, to pop into the Maker’s Mark Bourbon Village for some breakfast (wow, that sounds like an introduction at an AA meeting, but they have unbelievable danish, I swear that was it).  I turned around after scoring a few of the little delicacies and said good morning to George Williams, USDF President and way good dressage rider.  He also, I learned firsthand, is a very nice guy too.

The rest of the day was full of fun surprises too, including Totillas’ and Edward Gal’s performance in dressage.  They are from the Netherlands, a country which slapped down some serious dressage at the WEG today and piaffed their happy hindquarters out of there with the gold.  The link above is not from today because frankly, ya’all are not paying me enough to tape grainy video on my brave little camera of this once-in-a-lifetime horse and thereby give up my chance to  totally enjoy it live from the fourth row .  Besides, we all know it will be bootlegged with some real quality cameras on Youtube within the week.  So, we’re all well-served.  But I will show you the one picture I took for you:

The rest of the day was just as good as the start.  And tomorrow I will post the rest of the pictures and content, including lots of xc and a few combined driving pictures.  You’ll get a much better blog tomorrow than I would be able to do tonight in my current state of must-sleepness.

Rock on,

Camie

After watching the US win gold in reining, we had an opportunity to just rest in the beautiful weather and watch some horses school.  Here are some photos of the GP dressage schooling that was going on throughout the day.  The styles of schooling were quite varied.  Some were very disciplined, working on specific movements, while others would work very hard for a few minutes and then allow the horse to stretch and relax.  There were some riders who were getting insight from coaches constantly, and others were working entirely independently.  They were allowed to ride inside the competition arena and most took advantage of it.  At times there were 6 international quality horses and riders working in chaotic harmony in one large dressage arena.  Piaffe next to lengthening, canter half pass and collected trot.  Really amazing.

Some of them showed up in coolers and just hacked around.

Next, off we went to watch endurance.  There was a big and mostly quiet crowd out at the vet check area.  As one might expect, there was a strong middleeastern contingent there.  When we were there, the top two horses were from the United Arab Emirates, with the third horse from France.

We could see the horses come over the hill and trot in where their attendants would take them from their riders, then start stripping tack and get water on them to get their P and R’s down for the vet check.

After a cool out, the riders or their grooms would trot the horses down and back for the vets.  If the horses were deemed sound, a green light came on and the horses were allowed to go to the cooling tents.  Where they had to undergo a 15 minute mandatory hold.  Then they were trotted for the vets again to check for soundness again before going out.  The reasoning behind that is that if the horse has some soreness, it will come out once the horse is at rest and has to trot again.  Kind of why we eventers have showjumping on the day following xc.  It is a very good test of soundness!

Even though it was cool enough for many people to wear a light coat, the horses were kept in the shade of the tents while liberal amounts of water were applied to them.  All in all, the horses looked to be handling the stress of competition very well.  The crowd was very knowledgeable and very patient.  The horses started out in the morning at 8 a.m. and the last horses were expected to come in by the light of the glowsticks placed for the last 7 miles.

On the way back from endurance, we walked part of the xc course.  Though this picture looks like I was on the galloping track side of the ropes, of course I wasn’t.  <cough>  My little digital camera is a wonder of science with its zoom.  Um, yeah.  Anyway, this bending line could be very fun to watch riders negotiate.

As we were walking around the xc course, we were treated to a view of the some of the marathon hazards for combined driving.

Jay, who has built a fair number of xc fences, took an appreciative look at the workmanship of this marathon obstacle and remarked.  “That takes a little more than a chainsaw and two guys to horse it around.”  I’ll say.  I’m guessing cranes were involved.

Then there was this on the xc course:

I saw the sign first and was nonplussed, but it all became clear when I saw the jump itself:

This fence wins the Field Day Overachiever Prize for “Highest Amount of Work Put Into a Skinny Jump”.  The whole jump itself is 30′ wide, has at least 2 different kinds of wood, is sanded to within a few grains of the smoothness of a baby’s bottom and decorated with flowers.  For all that, the horses and riders have about a 6′ space to jump between the flags.  Go MES and your jump builders.  Love it.

And the Frank Lloyd Wright Award for best use of a live tree goes to:

It has been very dry in Kentucky in the last few months.  It rained hard on Friday night, breaking a long dry spell.  During the dry spell, the staff at KHP has been watering the galloping lanes with hoses and sprinklers to great effect.  In this photo you can see the green of the galloping track and the relative brown of the other areas.  The healthy grass and aerovation will be a great help to horses running xc next weekend.

Well, at least the above hazard doesn’t involve alligators and chickens, open pits and electrified potholes, but other than that I can’t find a thing easy about driving a 4-in-hand through it.

It was fun to look carefully at the downed-tree jump.  Just getting the thing cleaned up to look like it does required at least a day with a pressure washer and then, get on out there and stain the whole thing so it looks pretty.  Holy cats.  It does actually look like a pleasure to jump if you had an experienced horse, didn’t mind ditches or bigness and your horse can hold a line.  I think it is the ultimate foxhunter-on-steroids-and-after-a-stiff-stirrup cup fence. Somebody stayed up all night thinking about this one and then chuckled over coffee in the morning.

Now here’s a bit of fun.  This is the A element, then you have to angle a bank down, bending line to the up, then jump a table that is just out of the shot on the left.  The lovely person underneath it, a volunteer who is placing beautiful flowers, will not be there on Saturday.  She assured me she will be on the other side of the ropes.  Anyway, this is probably a well-manageable line for those with experience and accuracy.

Here’s a closer look at the direct route to show the angled drop in and bank up and table out in the direct line.  Lots of questions in quick succession.  I’d love to watch Kim S do this.  She’s a technician at this type of question.  At the WEG there is always and easier option and it always involves a significant expenditure of time.

Enter Exhibit Easier, the longer route.  This has to be approached from a different line than would be convenient to those trying to make the time.  The good news is that A, B and C are on a straight line.  The bad news is that the D is the same D as the other line, off to the right and just out of the shot here, so it will require another time-costly loop back.  Much slower, much easier.

Yes, this is a combined driving obstacle, but Jay and I loved the cob-webbing effect on it.  Usually this effect is used to make a part of a fence very high so that it can’t be jumped, but this is a new use to me that could be incorporated into some aspects of xc  jumps.  Anyway, we thought it was attractive.

Jay was walking the course yesterday while I was watching reining.  He texted me and said, “The drop into water will wake some folks up.”  Jay’s the king of understatement so I was intrigued.  I envisioned a few things, but not this.  It is exactly what it looks like, an angled, skinny drop into water.  The left side of this fence is angled away from the bank, so that some water is between it and the bank.   The option to this fence, looks like this:

A raised rolltop drop into water is the option, but again, it is way off the desired track and will take a lot of time.  Regardless of which “in” you take the out is the far bank and a quick left over the goose, which is facing us almost head on behind the tree branch. You can see the goose more clearly in the photo above.

Then a canter around and back into the water again after a jump on land.  Once in the water, riders can choose the B, C combo of up the bank, over the vertical and into the water again, or B in the water on the left, turn right and come back over the C on the right – and end up going exactly the opposite direction as the track.

So that was a description of about half the course.  We’ll get to the other half tomorrow or Tuesday.

As we left the park we went past the back of the temporary stands around stadium.  This canvas is incredible.  Everywhere we look here, there is something amazing.  Usually it is horses, of course, but sometimes it is technology.  I wonder where they print something like this. Really incredible.

Tomorrow is the start of team dressage.  Woohoo!

I am in the Microsoft Internet Cafe at the WEG, a fabulous medium-sized barn that MS will donate to the Lexington Humane Society when the are done.  Yay Microsoft Word!

We took the shuttle over here from the hotel, which worked out fine, but it was vastly underused by people who would rather pay $20 per car and walk a mile than wait around a little bit for a bus that drops you at the front gate.  I should note that the shuttle costs $15 per person, but all in all it was a pretty good experience over parking.

We went to the reining venue for session one.  I bought the headset for $45.  It provides expert commentary for all the indooor events throughout the week.  Dressage, para, showjumping, everything.  I learned a lot from the commentator, the current President of the Reining Association.  He spoke in the interim between the arena announcer most of the time, so it was well-timed.  I figure I can give the headset to my eventer friends when they get her and I leave in the mid-part of the week.

The event itself was very interesting.  It had a rodeo feel with a lot of cowboy hats and loud music while the horses  performed.  Apparently the riders were able to choose their own music because the title of the song often matched the name of the horse or was connected.  The audience was encouraged to whoop and holler and they did.  The event was lightly attended and I will be interested to see how many more show up for the second session.  Tonight I will have pictures of some beautiful reining horses, but I don’t have my upload cord here at the park, so you have something to look forward to tonight!  Anky Van Grunsven rode a reining pattern and as you would guess, her accuracy was outstanding.  The American, Tim MacQuay, leads after session I.

After the first reining session was over, we hiked up to the Maker’s Mark hospitality tent which is across the street from the Stadium, where eventing showjumping is held.  The hospitality tent is nothing short of awesome.  Not a tent, really, but a building.  I had sushi and Maker’s for an early lunch.  Crazy.

The we watched Phillip Dutton, Becky Holder, Boyd Martin, Buck Davidson and WFP school their horses dressage in the warmup.  Everybody looks really good!  More pictures tonight.

Then we went to the Bit o’ Britain tent (more pictures tonight) and did some shopping.  The Hit Air and Point Two vests are coming in a shipment tomorrow.  I don’t know how they will fit more merchandise in that tent!  Again, more pictures tonight.

Got to go, reining session II starts soon.  Great weather here, sunshine and light breeze.  I can’t think of where I’d rather be.

Rock on,

Camie

The day started out like this: feed the horses, dawgs and cats, then get in the car, start it up, drive out the driveway and turn west.  Even though we are going to the Kentucky Horse Park for the World Equestrian Games, a destination decidedly east of our home in central Iowa, we turn west because the interstate is just a bit west of our house.  After that little jog, it is east and south, then east and south again, all day long until we arrive at our hotel, the Lexington Hilton Green.  Pretty fancy stuff and I am very grateful to Purina for providing our hotel and my tickets for this grand outing to the World Equestrian Games.  I am in the land of glass elevators and horse art on every wall.  Yeeha.

We are going to be at the park Saturday through Tuesday.  We will see the Opening ceremonies, 4 sessions of reining, 4 sessions of team dressage, and endurance day.  Any way you cut it, this is going to be fun.  I don’t know an actual thing about reining.  For endurance, I spent a summer conditioning a string of arabs for endurance, so I have a small clue about that.  For dressage I have a moderate clue, but when people who ride Grand Prix talk, I listen.  Looking forward to some huge brain-expanding spectating.

This is going to be an adventure in a lot of ways!  First off, the drive out here is 10 hours.  Hubby Jay and I are traveling light in the Honda Camry – no truck, no trailer, no horses, no dogs, no ride times, no students, no tack, no worries!  I love every last one of the afore-mentioned things, but they also each have a responsibility attached to them that, for the next 5 days, I won’t be carrying.  The caveat to that is that a few of my students are competing this weekend at the Otter Creeek Horse Trial in Wheeler Wisconsin.  I was supposed to be there to coach them, but the WEG tickets became available, and, well, the WEG won, though northern Wisconsin in the autumn is gorgeous.  However, the Kentucky Horse Park pretty much is the US Horse Mecca and this is the first time the WEG has been in our country, so, um, it wins.  My students are going to be coached by another very competent trainer colleague, so everything is set.  But I will be following their scores on the internet, checking for text updates on my phone and cheering them on from here.  We did some texting this afternoon and they made it through dressage just fine and are looking forward to xc tomorrow.  Rained a lot up there, but the sandy footing should hold up quite well.

Now back to Lexington.  Purina is a company that does things right (for instance, they do feeding trials and long-term research  at their St Louis Research Facility that no other feed company even dreams of committing to.  That is one reason why their feeds perform so well in practice.) So, in the spirit of doing it right, my tickets are pretty snazzy, with VIP hospitality and don’t forget the Maker’s Mark Bourbon Village.  Yessir.  I’m looking giddily forward to that and I am going to thoroughly enjoy it.  Meanwhile, I bought tickets for Jay from an internet list.  Somebody’s plans to go to the WEG were dashed for whatever reason, so I swooped in like any shameless carpet-bagger and bought dressage tickets for Monday and Tuesday from her.  Sure I’m an opportunist vulture, but hey, at least she made some dough off something that next Tuesday night would be useless rectangles of paper.  Instead, a check is speeding her way from me this morning via our friends at the USPS and Jay is on his way to watching some serious dressage fabulousness.

For Saturday and Sunday, we are going to either purchase Jay’s reining tickets online and print them out at the hotel tonight or buy them at the gate tomorrow morning.  Lots of people wonder about the self-printed tickets, but I’m a technology believer.  In any event, I have three event tickets for tomorrow, (sessions I and II for Reining and Opening Ceremonies) and each ticket includes a grounds pass which gets both of us into everything else in the park, so we are good to go even if we do nothing.

So Jay and I will be having different spectating experiences at the WEG.  I’ll be in the rare air with the VIPs and Jay will be in with the Great Horse-loving Unwashed (GHU) up where the air gets thin.   My theory is that, for the most part, I will be among people who like horses, but don’t do the daily feeding and stall cleaning.  If they ride, they ride in an indoor arena that never has cobwebs or dust.  They hire people to haul their horses to shows and may compete, or may sip mint juleps in the shade while the pro competes their horses.  Everything’s alright with all that.

Jay’s people may board their horses or may feed and clean up after their horses themselves.  If their horses can be seen out their kitchen window, they hired or traded favors with a neighbor or friend to feed their horses while they went to the WEG.  They will vary from complete wanna-bes to very advanced riders, tending more to the very knowledgeable, and for the most part they will have a high fun factor.  Everything’s alright with that, too.  We’ll see how my theory holds up.

More adventure will be had in the shopping department.  There is a vendor village at the park that is pretty much a horsebabe’s fantasy.  Everything from tack and apparel to cupolas and Big Ass Fans.  (I kid you not, it’s real company)  The mission so far includes a Hit Air or Point Two Air vest (like car air bags for riders) for me, stadium jump flag holders for Susan, cool rain helmet cover for Sarah and I’m waiting for direction from Vikki regarding her list.  Gotta get some souvenirs of course too.  If you’ve got a shopping wish list item or two, let me know.  If it is horsey and it exists, it can be found at the WEG.

We are going to walk the eventing xc course at some point in our 4 days in the park.  It is a 4* course, like Rolex, so I know there will be some wow moments there.

Tonight after we checked in and found a Verizon shop to buy me a  phone charger (whoops, left it in Cambridge), we ate at Panda Cuisine here in Lexington which is a trip of an asian restaurant.  The food was spectacular, but it is home to a phone with the longest ring I have ever heard (and it was a traditional ring) and to add to the auditory extravaganza, the background music included John Denver and Greensleaves in the same set.  I really wanted to stay to see what they would play next, but then there’s the WEG thing to rest up for…

So here’s the plan for the next four days:

Saturday: Reining Session I and II and Opening Ceremonies

Sunday:  Reining Session I and II

Monday:  Dressage Sessions I and II and Endurance

Tuesday: Dressage Sessions I and II

And somewhere around all that we’ll fit in shopping and course walking and catching some clinicians and whatever other shiny object catches the light.  Come back tomorrow when there will be pictures from WEG ground zero and plenty of horsie adventures at the WEG.  Besides the fabulosity of the horses, we’ll have adventures including riding the shuttle to the park (when was the last time you were on a bus?) and counting how many times I get called “Honey” very sweetly and endearingly by complete strangers (today’s number was 4, by the way).

Rock on,

Camie