Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The final day...

Apparently when you host a major three-day event on a private property the owners so have a say in the proceedings.  We were made well aware of that when the Sunday morning vet inspection was scheduled at 7 am! because they had to finish the day by 4:30 at the request of his grace, The Duke of Marlborough. Normally it would not seem to be that great of a challenge to get done at that hour but at Blenheim your talking about close to 200 horses, almost half to show jump and the others still needing to run the cross-country for the CIC***.  So it was an early morning and all of our practicing the night before on the jog lane helped Quincy to do what we needed, jog straight and sound, and we were passed on the first go.

Now to plan for the show jumping.  Again it would seem simple to plan but somehow managed to get exciting for me... The show jumping was set to begin at 8:30 but the top 25 would not be jumping until 3:00. After cross-country I was lying in 27th.  The jog was in reverse order of placing so I paid close attention and saw that 2 of the horses placed ahead of me were withdrawn before the jog.  We double checked with the stewards so it seemed I had move to 25th and would be 1st in at 3:00.  Quincy got to go back to his stall for his customary nap and Jeff and I planned to head up and watch the first session of show jumping but I did want to wait just long enough to see the official order of go posted since it was quite a trek to the main arena.  At 8:50, after several horse had already jumped, they posted the official times at the stables.  Much to my surprise I was down as the last horse in the morning session, jumping at 9:40 (and remember it takes 20 minutes to hack to the main arena...). A slight moment of panic set in as not only would we need to rush to get tacked up and ready but I had planned to go over the course with David later in the afternoon.  I did a quick scan of the list and counted 24 horses listed for the afternoon session... after a call to the organizers and a check with the ground jury it was decided that I should be in the afternoon session.  Of course it only took another 10 minutes for this decision to be made so by that time I was dressed, Quincy had studs in, and we were just about to put the saddle on...

A good way to get the heart rate back down from that excitement was to go out shopping around the trade fair with our entourage :). We wasted a good bit of time doing that (but not too much money) and then I filled the rest of the hours beginning the task of packing and making everything fit back into the trunks to ship home.  The day was delayed even more when the CIC horses had plenty of trouble and (I overheard) ended up breaking the frangible pin 8 times on the 2nd to last fence alone.


Show Jumping was pushed back to 3:30 and I was tacked up and ready to hack over at 2:30.  They were only planning to allow 10 minutes for the course walk just before the start so I needed to plan time for that. Little did I know that the reason the course wasn't open was because of all of the interesting attractions being shown in the main arena.  One of which being two local hunts with their hounds...I found out when I saw them leaving the arena and coming straight towards me.  Quincy and I slightly diverted our path towards the arena to give them a little space and thankfully he was not set off by the whole display.  Then we were met in the warm-up area by roaring crowds as the bareback high jump was happening within the trade fair.  Here it appears it is made more exciting by starting with tack and having to remove a piece of tack in order to continue on so by the end they are all bareback and then the winner is the one that can jump 6 feet.  The cheering did make Quincy prick his ears and I'm pretty sure he thought they were all cheering for his arrival!

Warm-up felt great and for what we lacked on Saturday we made up for in a big way on Sunday.  Without a doubt we had our best round ever! The course was a series of related lines followed by sharp roll-back turns and we nailed all the distances and made quick turns to finish clear and within the time.





There were few in the morning session that were able to jump double clear so we kept Quincy in the warm-up to see if we might move up into the top 20.  However the afternoon session showed the caliber of horses and riders we were competing against as one after another jumped beautiful clear rounds with very few rails falling off the cups.  Jeff took Quincy back to get comfortable and I headed over to watch the finish with our group of supporters. My favorite horse to watch was Kitty King's "Zidante" and the best ride was given by Mark Todd on his catch ride "Conair".  He definitely worked to keep all the rails up on that one...

Meeting the Duke of Marlborough

Nice that the completion ribbons look just like the winners! 
All in all an awesome experience that gave me a very clear vision of what it takes to compete on the world stage and I am so very excited to do it again (hopefully next year!).

The videos have been very slow to upload so check back soon to see the footage....it's not much but certainly better than nothing. I'll post another trip re-cap once were back on American soil...flying out tonight.

The big day arrives...

Cross-country day has arrived! But it doesn't actually get underway until 11 since the CIC*** is show jumping in the morning so there's plenty of time to get organized, walk the course again, and find any and every way to keep busy. My go time was 12:46 so I planned to head to the main arena to walk the combination there (in the 15 minutes between the finish of show jumping and start of cross-country in which they took down the whole show jumping course and warm-up) and watch the first horse come through. It was NZ Olympian Jonelle Richards and she made it look easy but her speed did get the best of her at the corner combination towards the end of the course... It was difficult to see much with all of the crowds so I headed back to get ready.

Quincy's cross-country preparation
We planned Quincy's usual long warm-up so we could have a cooling off period because (believe it or not!) it was a pretty hot, sunny day and the going was quite firm. I'm not sure exactly what it was, and if I had I would've changed it, but Quincy and I were just not in sync in the warm-up.  It was difficult to get his focus as horses were going in every direction and the jumps were placed all around the field...so I was not getting a good feel of being able to go forward to the fences. Then we had an even longer delay as one of the German horses fell in the Dew Pond and took a while to clear the way.  The competitor in me wanted to go out on course and push the envelope to tackle the course within the time but the trainer in me wanted good, confident jumps the whole way around.  That side won out and I started a little conservative but after Quincy sailed the ditch and brush I felt like we were getting in a good rhythm.  He jumped great into the Dew Pond, turned super and met the out right in stride but caught his knee on the way up and twisted pretty badly.  Galloping away I felt like he was suddenly a little less enthusiastic and we were only 2 minutes into the course  so I stayed with my conservative ride and gave him a little more time in the ring to see the basket combination.  He jumped it perfectly and we were off onto the long galloping section where I did start to push on but according to may watch we were already almost 30 seconds down, a bit deflating that early in the course.




Quincy kept to his usual casual nature and was not very impressed by the giant tables but handled them well and was then awesome through the toughest section of the course: the drop combination, water combination, double brush corners, and angled double brush mound combination.  All of that came up quickly and I realized I was down even further on the clock since there was not much space to gallop on during that stretch with several hills and a lake to go through (literally).  







So by minute 7 my watch showed us almost a minute down...but he was jumping awesome and handling everything with ease so I just tried to stay on a good rhythm and live with the fact that I was having to waste time setting up for the combinations.  




The last 3 minutes had several very tough combinations and big efforts and after the flat feeling I had early on I wanted to be sure I had enough horse left at the end.  That I did! Quincy finished in amazing form and had plenty of gallop although we did finish 47 seconds over the time..it's always easy to look back and think that I could have used one (or 5) less tugs here and there and that I could have kicked on after the fences to have gained a second here and there but in the end we got home safe and sound and so very many did not.


After spending awhile kicking myself for the time faults I finally got pulled into the celebration that had been going on among my fabulous supporters from the moment we crossed the finish! I am so fortunate to have such a great group and the fact that Lansdowne had great purple shirts for them to buy made the whole thing even more fun :).  There was champagne at the barn then I headed out to make the most of my day and study how the big boys get it done... Jeff stayed behind to look after Quincy and Alston and my mom headed out to find the required post cross-country pizza. All the efforts payed off as Quincy looked great when we jogged later that afternoon.  He was happy to have plenty of people to be passed between so that he could get lots of grazing time.



One important note: being in the barn with the New Zealand team really paid off when Mark Todd asked to use my step stool...I'm pretty sure it now carries Mark Todd greatness so we may help fund our next trip by charging a fee to anyone wanting to use it...

And away we go!

Friday morning came early and I decided to trust that Quincy's behavior would be best if I didn't do a "pre-ride" before my test. Instead he went for a nice long hand graze before being tacked up to hack over to the main area at 8.  Well he is no fool and did realize this time it was for real so decided to add a little spooking and bolting into our hack over for good measure... He stayed a little more up for the beginning of my warm-up but I proceeded with the routine that had been working the previous 2 mornings.  When David arrived he instantly changed the program since he could see we had a slightly different horse.. I went along with the plan and after about 10 minutes things were feeling good.



We went through a few movements, got a few reminders, and we were in.. Jeff got the test on video since it did not appear that the professionals had arrived so sorry for the lack of zooming ability (slow to upload so adding soon).



I came out of the test thrilled with our performance, which is very rare for me, but reserved my excitement until they announced my score.  But when they did, 44.8, there was a celebration!  I've never gotten better than a score in the 50's with International judges and to be below a 45 was awesome. I instantly pointed out to David that it meant we had score better than all 7's :).


Quincy went back to get lots of carrots from his first wave of admirers..more would be arriving later in the day...and I was off to walk the course again since now it was really on! On my third walk I started to get a good feel of the track of the course, the terrain and turns and approaches to the fences, and began to solidify my plans for the combinations.

For lunch Jeff and I were invited into the sponsors marquee to join the UK Shires Equestrian group.  We had a great meal and interesting conversation much of it based on the differences in spectators and sponsorship between the US and UK.  One take on the difference in the number of spectators that come out for events in the UK was simply that eventing is one of the only really exciting sporting events in the UK that is a family friendly outing while in the US eventing is competing with so many more exciting sports... Many people I spoke with didn't really even know what the competition at Blenheim was all about.

Another course walk in the afternoon with Jeff just to review my plans left me feeling good and we were off to the local pub to grab a bite and get some rest...

Thursday at Blenheim

On Thursday the competition got underway.  We used an early morning ride to practice the dressage test and focus in on all the little details.  As David said, I had to be sure not to give any points away since Quincy's gaits can only give us 7's at best. Quincy was very focused and relaxed so I was feeling good about my ability to get the most out of every movement.

The small North American contingent gathered an hour later to walk the cross-country course and I started to wrap my head around how I was going to tackle the monster... 
Fence 1
The first few fences were big but fairly plain and all in the shadows of trees. Quincy is very brave but sometimes aloof so I tend to walk lines that give me an extra stride or 2 to get his attention.  Right from the start the conversation was about the difficulty making time on this course.  The early sections were fairly flat but wound all around the trade fair and main arena so I thought it was going to be a challenge for me to get up on the clock early while keeping Quincy focused and jumping well. A combination of tables at 4 would give me a good feel of his length of stride and adjustability but fence 5, a massive ditch and brush, would make sure I wasn't getting backwards to the fences (because I would end up in the ditch).  After a quick uphill gallop fence 6 looked like a fairly serious question as we had to jump a rail towards the trade fair down into a bowl of water then turn sharp left to head up out of the bowl and over a tall, narrow canoe 4 or 5 strides later.  To me it was going to be key to get Quincy slow enough to get his focus and to trust he would be brave so that we didn't end up jumping all the way to the bottom of the bowl and either pecking or not being able to make the turn... 

If I describe all of the combinations I could really send all day writing so I'll just give you some other quick impressions:
  • there were more brush fences over my head then I've ever seen...and it wasn't exactly brush I would want to jump through.. 
  • all of the technical questions also required a great deal of scope as they were all spread fences & most with brush over my head (sometimes I wish I was taller so they didn't seem quite so big!).. 
  • the drop was the biggest I've ever seen and the terrain was used mush more to challenge your ability to stay balanced while going forward..no second guessing..just get on with it!
  • everyone needs to get much more comfortable jumping massive ditches (or as I was fond of calling them, canyons) as it seems to be the new trend.. there were 5 on this course and they started huge and got bigger so the one at fence 25 was outright ridiculous, if the riders here spend 15 minutes during the rider meeting trying to convince the course designer to give us an option you know it must be...
  • the course never let up..the table to corner at fence 24 was a massive question and the 2nd to last was a question that did not seem at all appealing to jump on a tired horse
2nd to last fence.. a little surprise on landing

Last fence..still more brush!
  • you know the course is big when they had to place the cabins from the Olympic course in the warm-up for us since they were too small for the course..and they were the smallest of the warm-up fences..
Olympic cabins in warm-up
Just another warm-up jump
So after a good look around the cross-country we decided to check out the trade fair. Adding to the theme of everything being massive it was as well.  Fortunately for Jeff I was feeling a little under the weather so had little interest in shopping and went back to the barn for a rest until the arena familiarization at the end of the day. The familiarization was not only to the main arena but also to the trek required to get to the main arena as it was a 20 minute walk past the cross-country, trade fair, over a narrow bridge, and through the woods. Fortunately Quincy was unimpressed by it all and was just as happy to stand around and take in the sights.  I hoped he'd feel the same Friday morning as we were first up at 9!

Quincy getting "familiarized"




Tuesday and Wednesday at Blenheim

First and foremost, a huge apology for all of these updates coming after the conclusion of the event...there was quite literally no data service anywhere...so now to catch up:

We shipped from Aston Le Walls to Blenheim on Tuesday afternoon and were one of the first to arrive.  Lucky for us we were stabled in the barn with the New Zealand horses so I figured Quincy would be getting good advice from his neighbors. Quincy bounded off the lorry, suddenly realizing that all of this crazy travel had a purpose! Once Quincy was settled into his stall Jeff and I went out to continue our search for a wheelbarrow which took many miles and more than an hour.  I never would've guessed it would be such a difficult task but in the end we prevailed.  Back at Blenheim Quincy got to go on his usual first ride which consisted of wandering around the schooling field in a hackamore finding nice patches of grass to nibble on along the way.  There was actually quite a  bit more grazing than wandering...

Wednesday started with a nice dressage school having David watch over our work. Quincy felt great and we worked on solidifying a good warm-up routine to get him loose and engaged without making him feel like he was having to work too hard (after all he's still very lazy at heart). David also helped me to focus on better timing of my half-halts to prepare for my lateral work and that was just the tune-up I needed to solidify several movements.


The rider briefing wasn't until 1 so we got Quincy beautified and braided so that I'd be able to walk the cross-country after the briefing.  And I'm glad we made time to do that... first impression was that the course was enormous and packed with technical questions (which were also enormous). That definitely got my heart rate up a little but nothing compared to the jog... looking back I really think the issue was simply the jog surface but in the moment I had no idea why my horse was suddenly trotting short in front and off we were to the hold area.  There was no obvious reason but unfortunately he continued to jog the same in the hold area.  It actually got to the point of weighing whether or not to represent... then jeff said to go once more and just focus on keeping him straight and in the middle of the lane (the road was actually crowned) and suddenly he seemed ok so we decided we had nothing to lose. I focused on keeping him straight and not allowing him to dawdle and he jogged just fine for the ground jury.  I really hoped this was not an indication of how the weekend was going to go! We decided to push on as usual and not read too much into the way he had jogged so I tacked up to go out for my usual Wednesday gallop.  He felt great...gotta love horses sometimes.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Aston Le Walls lay-over

Once we did make it to Aston Le Walls it seemed all was well.. unfortunately there were a few other hiccups along the way but not any involving Quincy which is really all that matters!  The first day was a busy one since they were running a horse trials all day so we got a good look at lower level eventing in the UK. I think most people I know would be put off walking training level course that had a ditch and wall as fence 4, one stride combination at fence 5, roll-top into water at fence 6, and also included a bank combination, mound combination, giant corner, trakener, and an option at the 2nd water to jump in over a log atop a very steep mound... My overall impression was that it would be nice if more of our courses gave us the opportunity to jump questions like those...  And I love that the dressage rings are truly just white rails lying on the ground.. Talk about making sure a young horse stays between your aids since it would be so easy to leave the ring!

Later in the day we were invited to watch the Burghley coverage and then got to pitch in when they had a few volunteers needing to leave early.. Jeff and I got to be cross-country starters our first day in the UK!  Once the competition was over Quincy got to go for a nice hack and was introduced to the thousands of birds around the farm (they raise pheasants as well!).
Wormleighton Hall B&B
View from our room at Wormleighton Hall
With a lovely B&B just down the road past the pub we were all set! Next on the list was the rental car (and Jeff learning to drive) and finding a tack shop so that we could pick up a few things, namely a wheelbarrow. So Monday was filled with excitement while we spent most of the day learning to navigate the super narrow windy roads that have no names.  If you don't know the name of the village you need to go to or through you basically just have to guess at which road to turn on or be lucky enough to have your gps pick up a signal. It was not difficult to waste away most of the day but we did get back in plenty of time for Quincy to have a good dressage school.  He was a little grumpy about having to go back to serious work but by the end of the ride felt great.


Since I knew that we would focus quite a bit on the dressage once we arrived at Blenheim I decided to give Quincy a light jump school Tuesday morning.  He was fairly uninterested and didn't feel like making much of an effort.  I didn't want to push the issue in case he was feeling the effects of his travels so we kept the jumps small and just did enough to get him loose.  Then Jeff and I were off to find Blenheim and our cottage since Quincy couldn't get a ride until later in the day...

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Are we there yet ?!?


While driving to JFK airport on Thursday afternoon/evening we ended up stuck in traffic more often than not...frustrating but I just kept thinking that once we got to the airport the stress of travel would subside and it would be smooth sailing.  Looking back I could not have been more wrong! We arrived at JFK Thursday at 10pm... we arrived at Washbrook Farm, Aston Le Walls, UK at 6am on Sunday.  For those trying to do the math I will happily break it down for you since those hours are permanently etched into my brain:
  • 10pm JFK vetport arrival - no other horses, asphalt stalls, & metal channels inside the stall to hold the partitions when they need to convert to tie stalls...the beginning of my sleepless nights even though we did stay at a nearby Hampton Inn.  Visions of abrasions danced in my head... The reason for the Thursday arrival was that the cargo had to arrive before noon the day we shipped so we didn't want to risk being late on Friday.  Lesson learned, stay at a private farm the night before.
  • Noon - cargo loaded...then the waiting game begins. Quincy was not allowed out of his stall as I was made aware that it is far too risky.  If a horse gets loose (or dog it appears) it is very likely to be shot as they cannot allow any chance of an animal on any of the runways. 
  • 6pm - planned loading time to ship horses over to the plane.
  • 7:30pm - actual loading time to ship the horses over to the plane.  Quincy now begins the portion of the journey that goes from confinement to no movement allowed.  We were vanned to the airport to go through all of the normal passenger check in as the flight we were on was a KLM combo... meaning a giant passenger plane with cargo just behind.  We were told they would take care of the loading and we would get to see the horses once we boarded the plane.
  • 10pm - time to board.  The official KLM groom gave us a quick peek at the boys, Quincy was travelling with Walstraed (Jules Ennis' horse that is travelling to school with her at Hartpury) and a 2 year old Arabian colt heading to England to race. 
  • 11pm - take-off. Jules & I decided it was best to have Jeff hang out with the horses during take-off and landing.  It sounds like Quincy's eyes have never gotten so big...and that's saying something!
  • 11:55am (with 6 hour time change) - amsterdam landing. The plan was to get the horses out of their little box & van to a stable where they could stretch their legs for 4 hours or so.  The trip to England was said to take 10 hours or so... but now we found out that the horses couldn't leave their little box until the vet was there to see them.  So we made our way to meet them at the animal hospital hoping it would not take too long.
  • 2pm - the vet arrives and we load straight onto the truck to head to England... Quincy literally got to walk 100 feet from one box to the truck.
  • The plan was to head to Calais for the ferry crossing just in case it was busy...
  • 6pm - serious traffic back-up as we near Calais....
  • 7pm - we arrive at the cargo entrance for the ferry and luckily there's no line.. figuring the trucks decided not to wait..instead we are told that we need to turn around and come back once the ferry is not so busy. Thankfully our drivers understand that we will not be ok with prolonging the horses' time on the truck.. apparently there are several ferry companies so they  made a couple of calls to change our "booking".  We got the go ahead with the news that the ferry was running 2 hours late but we were booked on the 8pm & by this time it was already 9pm..
  • 10:30pm ferry boarding... if the time does not seem to match up with the planned time, you're right!  There are many extra hours added in here and there..  Here I am envisioning the ferry that crosses the potomac & in rolls what looks to be a cruiseship! Once on the ferry you can't stay with the vehicles so we check the horses for the umpteenth time & head up to the lounge area which includes a restaurant, thankfully... and by the end of the trip it is full of snoring people of benches and chairs.
  • Midnight - off the ferry with only one more side trip to customs in Dover...which should be quick since there were no other cargo trucks aboard.  But of course that is not how our trip is going so it really should not have been a surprise to hear that it will take 30 minutes before they can see us.  Then after 30 minutes we're told it would be another hour... I was in and out of consciousness so much that the whole thing really is a blur.. at some point we begin driving again but now we're in England so I keep feeling as though the truck is about to tip over on the windy roads so there's not really any sleep yet again.  
  • somewhere around 4am - we deliver the Arab racehorse to his farm, which happens to be the Sultan of Oman! I really wish we'd gotten to see that farm in the daylight...
  • 6 am - we arrive! Quincy got to go into a stall then out for a hand graze... 
I'll have to have a brief delay on sharing our 1st 2 days in England as recapping the journey has exhausted me  my computer battery.  Photos and the fun of round-a-bouts and searching for a wheelbarrow to come! I can leave you with a quick trivia question though: What is the difference between a "humped zebra crossing" and a "humped tucan crossing"?  Just one of the many thoughts to ponder.  

Sneak peek: We have arrived at Blenheim! but there is horrible cell reception so my posts may be a bit delayed... or written at a pub with a pint :) 

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Quincy's next "ride"! He will now be an experienced traveller of air, land, & sea transportation...I have a feeling he will be very happy to be off the truck, whenever that may be :)