WEG: Arrivals As The Blog Turns By Ruthie Harbison

So horses have been arriving to the park slowly in batches of 8 or 9. We have been told to expect 48 horses to arrive today so things are stepping up. Most of the endurance horses are here, some dressage horses have arrived and a handful of eventers from Australia and one from NZ. Things are still pretty quiet around the barn with most stalls being empty. The stabling was arranged according to discipline not by country so all of the horses from dressage are together and all the eventing horses are together etc. Security is definitely stepping up now which is causing a bit of havoc as gates that you could use before are now closed and no one seems to know where people are supposed to legally park at this point. We have been forewarned that the parking situation will only continue to worsen. We have had it easy so far being able to park in the stabling area but we have been told that will be no more as of Monday.

I had a little run in with the law while taking my xc photos. Luckily I have been running all summer and made it back to the truck before my pursuers. I am taking this as a sign that I can no longer wander up to the xc jumps and take photos of them now that they are flagged. I think today I will try to see if I can get some photos of the driving hazards - they look amazing!
The great thing about being in the barn is that you meet a lot of very interesting people from different countries. I met Juan Briz from Guatamala the other day. He is grooming for Jaime Mansilla in endurance on the grey mare Candalita. Candalita is of unknown breeding but they believe her to be 1/4 TB, 1/4, Arab, 1/4 QH and something else. She is probably the only horse here competing barefoot and Juan is her trimmer. He says they have been training her in strap on easy boots and she will compete in the 100 mile endurance phase in glue on easyboots. Interesting fact about Canadalita is that she was a loaner horse since the rider's top horse was not old enough to compete here at WEG as he is only 7 and FEI requires the endurance horses to be at least 8.

There has already been heartbreak in the barn for Pedro Pablo from Chile. His endurance horse got his foot caught in its haynet the very first night it was stabled here at the park and fell down and was injured. Luckily the horse will recover, but what terrible luck. All the other riders from the other disciplines have been very sympathetic to his situation as everyone who competes understands that kind of heartbreak with the horses. Unfortunately Chile only sent three endurance horses so now they no longer have a team. Pedro has been a real trooper about it and says he needs a halter with 'shit happens' written on the side of it.

Well this is it for now. I will send more updates as I can but the pictures will keep coming!
Don't forget to post questions for me if you have them.

~Ruthie

A Behind the Scenes Look at WEG by Rutie Harbison

Hi There! This is the first entry of my WEG blog. If you are looking for a blog with lots of details of the actual competition and results this will not be it. My blog will be more of a behind the scenes look at the barns, vendor village and random happenings that I find interesting enough to write about. From my first drive through the park yesterday there appears to be plenty happening so I better get started.

First of all for those who do not know me here is a little background. I am a PRO member (obviously), an upper level rider and trainer based in Florida. I have come to WEG to work for Bit of Britain for the month. I will assume everyone in the US will know what Bit of Britain is but for those unfortunate few that have not spent lots of money there check it out at Bitofbritain.com. Bit of Britain has 2 set ups at WEG, a huge store set up right outside the main stadium and a smaller store located in the barn area to supply the competitors. I will mostly be in the one in the barn area but may help out a bit in the main one as well. As of yesterday the tent for the barn store had still not arrived and the carpet for the vendor village store had not arrived either so we are in a holding pattern waiting to unload a whole lot of equipment. Hopefully that will start today.

My first impressions driving through the horse park on Thursday was that there is a whole lots still to be done. There are work crews and building equipment EVERYWHERE. I mean working on every road, hanging off every building and blocking every intersection. However, I have to say that going back through yesterday I could not believe how much had been accomplished in 24hrs so they appear to be pretty well organized over there and things are moving fast. For those of you who have been to the horse park to compete it will look quite different. The whole parking area by the barns is filled with temporary stabling and various tents for the competitors and grooms. There are new arenas where the xc used to run though to the head of the lake and there are new buildings everywhere. I am going to try and snap some photos today so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

Well I am signing off for today until more interesting things start to happen. If anyone has any questions for me feel free to post them on the PRO facebook page. I will get them and will answer them as fast as I can. Don't be shy, you can ask me pretty much anything (okay, there may have to be some boundaries!).

Cheers from Lexington,
Ruthie