Sunday, September 12, 2010

Final Day at the AEC's by Sinead Halpin


What a day. I would not want to be in the shoes of the US selectors right now. Three months ago I was not feeling too confident about our American team, but now we have a large group of strong competitive combinations. Unfortunately for the selectors, everyone pretty much has chosen the last few weeks to shine making narrowing down the decision of the four team members, two individuals and two alternates tough. Fortunately for America as a whole, we are going to the WEGs with a strong well prepared team!

I was pleased with Tate today. I was a bit slow to react when I realized jumping into the triple that we were further away from the second oxer than I was anticipating. Tate came down a bit early and had the back rail. It unfortunately was a $1000 rail considering it dropped me to 7th, which was right outside the money. But education is priceless and I will react quicker the next time. Right after show jumping I trotted Tate up for Team Vets, Brendon Furlong and Kathy Cone, and he trotted with flying colors, pretty much securing our grant to Boekelo. I am so excited for the opportunity and am pumped to spend the next few weeks polishing up so we can hopefully show the selectors were wise in choosing us.

In other news, my best friend Rebecca Howard just got told she will be one of the six competing for Canada at WEG. I'm sure everyone remembers, but it doesn't feel too long ago that I was writing my blog from her hospital room after a rotational fall that left her with 16 broken bones and a collapsed lung. So a huge shout out to Rebec for coming back with a vengeance! Speaking of Rebec my favorite story from the weekend: So Rebecca Howard, Steph Rhodes-Boche (also on the Canadian team squad), Dana Cook (Rebec's groom) and I all stayed in a little rented motor home. I got a phone call friday night from Rebec asking me if I had locked the camper which I had not.. On purpose anyway, but anyone who knows me knows sometimes I can get a little distracted;) and I certainly wouldn't put it past myself to accidentally lock it. So Rebec not being one to sit back and be idle (obviously) decided to break in through a window. So with the help of a few girls Rebec got a leg up into the camper,crawled through the window only to find herself standing in someone else's camper!! Ha thankfully no one was in there so out the window she came again and moved 2 motor homes down and walked through our unlocked door!

~Sinead

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