Sunday and Monday at the WEG's by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Sunday, we noticed a real change in the temperature here in Kentucky. It was really the first cold morning we have experienced so far this fall, and I think some of the horses were absolutely loving it!

Team Canada had our little team jogup in the morning to make sure that everyone looks the way they should, and it seemed kind of strange to be pulling coolers off horses before they do their trot up. Wasn't it just 100 degrees last week??? I have to say, it was pretty refreshing after our hot last 3 weeks on the road. All the Canadian horses are doing great, and we're feeling good headed in to the competition.

After the jog up, Canada had a dressage ring booked for 2 hours so we each got to head down and have a quick school with David in a 20x60. It was a little ways from the barn, so the hack down was nice for the horses, and then there was plenty of room in the middle of all the arenas to warmup before our 20 minute time slot with Coach. In the afternoon, we had an opportunity to ride them again in one of the arenas that is more in the middle of the action. This was a nice thing to do with the horses because it was a lot busier than our more remote arena in the morning, but it still wasn't so busy that it was a distraction. Sort of trying to ease them into having tons of people on the outside of the arenas. Ollie feels good!!

Monday, we started off with another team jog, but this time we got to use the official jog strip. This was a good thing to do because we get the chance to have the horses see the decorated jog strip, as well as make sure that everything looks great on the actual surface they will be using on Wednesday morning. Some of the European horses were doing jogs and canters around the steeplechase track right beyond the jog strip, and Ollie thought that looked like a great idea. He was very well behaved, but I had a hard time keeping up with him when it came to be his time to jog!!

After our jog, I joined the fun on the steeplechase track, but at a walk. Ollie hasn't had a really good hack out in a while, so this was a great opportunity. It was cold and rainy, so we put the rain sheet on over top of my legs and over his butt and off we went!! Rebecca and I walked around for 45 minutes or so before our loop brought us back to the stables. I think Ollie and Rupert were beyond pleased that they escaped morning dressage. They were even more excited in the afternoon when we went down to our jump school!! A dressage free day.... it was pretty awesome.

Jo Ann Wilson worked on the horses again today and yesterday, and I'm so excited that she is here with us. We have a pretty sound bunch here with us this week, but Jo Ann is going to help us all to look and feel our best through the whole competition!! Very lucky....

Tomorrow is the competitor briefing, the course walk, the official schooling time in the main stadium, AND the dressage ride for Moorlands Totilas. My grandparents on my dads side are Dutch, so I"m thinking about sportin some orange when I go down to try and soak up some of the absolutely indescribable awesomeness that is Edward Gal and Totilas. My expectations of that performance are a little high :)

Thanks for reading, keep in touch


Stephanie

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

World Equestrian Games-Canada Style Day 1 by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Today, we left Ocala for our 12 hour trek to Lexington, KY for a little horse show they are having up here. No big deal. !!!!!
The drive up was super, my mom drove the last 8 hours while I on and off napped in the passenger seat. As pretzeled up as I was (I get the whole feet-on-dashboard-knees-above-head attempt at curling up comfortably going on) I actually felt pretty well rested when we arrived at the KHP at 3.

The system for getting horses off the trailer, ID checked, and all the stuff unloaded was actually pretty well done. All our horses were settled into their nicely organized barn within a couple of hours. This is largely thanks to Graeme and Deb for all their work they did in the couple of days before we arrived getting the stalls set up and getting the lay of the land for us.

It kind of seems like the whole transportation thing from the hotel to the park is going to be a little wild, but I think we'll get it sorted out over the next day or 2 and just fall into a system with it. I'm so glad the grooms are just a quick bike ride away from the horses, so its not like I'm going to be worried about Ollie at all!! Our hotel is super, I am so looking forward to crawling into this very comfy looking bed. (It will be a HUGE improvement on the truck seat)

Tomorrow we are going to meet at the barn at 8, plan to get the horses out for a wander and bit of a play two separate times tomorrow, just kind of taking a tour, and then tomorrow evening is the Opening Ceremonies for the whole games. Looking forward to it!! Will be armed with my camera...

Thanks for reading


Stephanie

Thursday At The Soon To Be Over CET Camp by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Today was the all important last gallop day for the Canadian horses. Almost everyone had a different strategy for their horse today. Ollie, being half warmblood, did one circuit of the regular gallop at a regular pace, and then did two sets of sprints up the main hill. This was a great last workout for him, and he feels awesome. Dr. Ann Baskett was here for final selection vetting this afternoon, and I don’t think there were any unexpected results from that. Ollie looked super, and was eating and drinking and napping just the way he should be on the day before travel.

I have packed up and cleaned up my little loaner house here at Meredyth South, and send out many many thanks again to Jackie Mars for letting us spend the last 10 days here.

Tomorrow we hit the road at 3 am on the way to Kentucky!!

Thanks everyone for all your interest and support



Stephanie

Tuesday & Wednesday at Camp CET by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Tuesday, we had the wonderful opportunity of going down the road to Sharn Wordley and Craig Martin’s farm to do a showjumping school. The footing in their ring (done by Sharn and Craig’s arena company Wordley Martin Equestrian) was amazing, the horses really pinged off of it, and it gave them a great amount of support and cushion. Lucky us!! They have a larger arena than the one here at Jackie Mars’s farm, so we were able to set up some stuff to give us a feel of course riding again. Big thanks to them for having us invade their place for the morning. Also, they are the guys behind PointTwo airvests here in the USA, so we got our team Canada airvests yesterday as well!! They are verrrry pretty.

Today was our last real dressage school before we hit the road. I am pleased to say that Ollie feels great. The level of detail that we are working on within the test is really exciting…. 5 months ago I couldn’t even imagine getting that deep into it. His quality of movement is so much better, but its really up to me to know exactly where and how to get every mark that I can out of that test. So hopefully I can get it all together and nail that test next week!! 8 days!!

The trunks are loaded, except for the stuff we have to use in our gallop tomorrow, and we are having our last Training Camp group dinner tonight at David’s for some final “team bonding” moments before life gets crazy.

Looking forward to it!!



Stephanie

Monday at Camp USA with Buck Davidson

Sorry missed a few days...not so good with my blog. Everyone is in good spirits here in Atlanta at Team USA Camp. Reggie is going great with help from Oded in the dressage. I am really focusing on my preperation in the days leading up to my dressage test. I know I go second in the team, which will be Thursday afternoon. I think i will jump him on Wednesday after the jog, ride him in the morning Thursday in the double bridle, then get on for the test with a snaffle about 45 minutes before i go. I have a lot of confidence in my plan and i hope Reggie agrees.

Kathleen Blauth is back helping me after taking time out to have a baby. it is great to have her with me, she worked for me for 5 years. She loves Reggie and puts up with me. We have a great relationship and I feel comfortable knowing i have a great person/groom taking care of my horse.

Andrea has been awesome. She is healing up well. I am lucky to have such a great girlfriend that supports me so much. I am a pain in the neck during these big events, but she is unbelievable and seems to never get fustrated with me. Aaron Vale is coming Wednesday to give me some last second pointers for the show jumping. He is one of my best friends, and a great help to me for the final day.

Just a few more days to stress, then the games begin, everyone is ready! It is very hot and dry here in Atlanta. Kentucky will seem cool no matter what, we can't wait. A big thanks to Carl Bouckaert and his staff for allowing us to use his beautiful facility. They have taken great care of the horses and riders. Sorry it is late and I have a 7:00am dressage lesson with Oded tomorrow. So good night. i will have more tomorrow.

Buck

Monday at Camp CET by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Today was a bit more of a relaxed day for Ollie and I at camp. After our 7am jog, I had a very nice long walk hack and long and low warm up before my 8:15 lesson started. The lesson was a little quieter, in mostly a deeper frame and just working on installing some of the tools that I’m going to need for my test in 10 days. David mostly just let me carry on and play for the first little while, and then started to help me out with some accuracy stuff within my movements.

After the lesson, I went into town to have the CET crest and flags sewn on to my Shadbelly!! Very exciting… after running some errands we ended back up in the barn packing up our wonderful red trunks! At first, I was a little put off hearing that we had one trunk to put everything into, but after opening up this wonderful trunk and seeing how much stuff really did fit into it… wow!! They are very cool looking, and really functional. I’m so excited to have them. That might be a little thing, but its part of the “team” experience, and its cool to me!!

We had a group dinner at Jen and Kyle Carter’s farm tonight, which provided even more team bonding!! We are going to be one seriously bonded group of people by the time we leave for Kentucky!!

Stay tuned…



Stephanie