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 Canadian Eventing Training Camp by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Today was a good day for Canada’s dressage preparations. We had Gunner Ostergaard come to the farm to help us all work on our test for the WEGs. Most of us opted to participate (those who didn’t simply didn’t feel like drilling the movements was appropriate for their horses today) and it was a success for all! The general impression is that we all very much appreciated all of Gunner’s advice, and I personally have to say that I really enjoyed his teaching style and his way of explaining things. None of it was off in left field compared to what David has been telling us, it was just that personal touch and the different emphasis that Gunner put on it that added something new and useful to our homework. I think the plan may be to have him come to some of our Florida training sessions next spring!

Other than that, we had a fairly relaxed day around the farm. Ollie got to be turned out from 6:30-11:30 am and alternated between napping and eating. I’m so grateful that our horses get to enjoy a chill atmosphere for a few days before we head off to the mayhem that will be the WEGs!!



Thanks for reading. Talk to you tomorrow

~Stephanie