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

US Team Training Camp by Buck Davidson and Andrea Leatherman

Today we had the option to have a dressage lesson with either Mark Phillips or Oded Shimoni. Since I have been working with Oded for several years and he has been great with Reggie particularly this last year, I opted for the lesson with Oded. The day before Reggie was good, but still just a little tight from the weekend before. Today we really zoned in on finding what kind of warmup would give me the best horse for the test and then worked on specific movements. I feel everything is really getting fine tuned.

AFter watching several more lessons I took a little afternoon break to go golf. It was a great course and I was having a relaxing time until a group of people jumped the fence and attempted to steal my golf partner's golf cart. We leaped in our other golf cart to follow them, really stupid, I realize looking back, and were able to retrieve our golf cart. All that was taken was the other guys phone. Upon returning to the farm we all had to walk the gallop to make sure there were no stones, uneveness, etc. They attempted to make the gallop better by putting a sand/fiber mixture down. It seems like it has helped, but we will only know tomorrow after we run up it. Off to an early night sleep for an even earlier gallop tomorrow.

~Buck