Opening Day at WEG Day by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

So, welcome to our first real day at the WEG!!! We arrived at the barn this morning at about 8am, and got on pretty much right away for what was supposed to be a quick little ride. We ended up being on our horses for nearly two hours. First of all, we hacked down to the rings in the infield, just to check it out. The footing was really soggy from all the rain we had last night, so it was a good thing we didn't spend 15 minutes going down there with the intent to do a lot of work!! We had to be stewarded across the road and all the way down to the rings, which was kind of nice because we had NO idea where we were going. This was after we had attempted to go hack around the steeplechase course. This didn't work very well because some of the other eventers from different countries were doing gallops this morning.... you can imagine how that turned out. But all was well in the end, we got to our arenas for our schooling times and spent the last 15 minutes or so of our ride doing some flatwork in the final warmup rings we'll be using on Thursday and Friday. Very useful! I'm sure we're not going to be allowed back down there until Wednesday.

This evening was spent at the Opening Ceremonies for the games, which was indescribably cool. I really enjoyed the whole thing. The arena felt incredible filled with all of those people, and to be there with the riders from the other disciplines was great. Its really exciting to just be milling around waiting for the thing to start and seeing all the people I grew up idolizing. You look one way and there's Mary King and William Fox Pitt, and then you look another way and you see Anky, then all of a sudden Mark Todd walks right past you and asks how you're doing. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. But very very VERY cool.

Tomorrow we will be riding in the infield dressage arenas for a short morning school, and then in the Walnut Ring below the grandstands (also known as the Prince Phillip Games ring for all the Rolex Kentucky attendees) for another school later in the afternoon.

For now, hello comfy bed at the Marriot :) Goodnight!!


Stephanie