Ooh, la, la!! World Equestrian Games! La creme de la creme. I have been lifting my jaw off the ground since I arrived Sept 24th. I am rubbing shoulders with the best of the best, some of which I have yet to meet… Pippa Funnel and Jenny Lorriston Clark are high on my priority list […]

And so it begins, or is it the finish?  It seems like we have been “on the road” to the WEG since Colombo left Hong Kong.  It’s a huge excitement to be here, at an Olympics just for horses.  The Dressage Queens, the Endurance, the Reiners are all here.  Show jumpers are arriving daily as […]

While I fry like an egg in the afternoon sun (but I’m not complaining!) here are a few thumbs up and down from the dressage: 1. favourite new-comer day one GP – Emma from Finland and her fabulous passage and trot machine. She’s just 25, but she sure rode like she belonged here. No big […]

With all the excitement of the dressage over the past two days I haven’t had a chance to keep y’all up to speed on the non-dressage news. I’m happy to report there were no serious casualties in the endurance, and while some of the horses looked pretty Biafran there were also some very fit looking […]

Now that I’ve seen him in the flesh with my very own eyes, I can die knowing that Totilas is everything the hype has made him out to be. I knew how he looked  of course – like everyone else in the world I’ve watched videos of him ad nauseum on FEI TV and YouTube. But […]

I really did take my happy pill this morning and was determined to talk today about the tremendous sport, fabulous venue (I can’t WAIT to walk the cross country course, which looks stupendous) and continued warmth of the locals – which more than compensates for the continuing frigid weather. I would always choose a cold […]

I can’t  believe it. Adelinde got as far as the rein back when Stephen Clarke noticed blood on Parzival’s lip. It’s so devastating, first for Adelinde and her supporters, of course. But for her team, the spectators, and me, this is frankly heart breaking. I have to not think about how Adelinde must feel right […]

I know I promised I’d be more cheerful today but it’s raining. It’s also too early for bourbon, so take me or leave me in the cold, grumpy state in which I find myself. While the first dozen or so horses make their way through a damp Grand Prix in front of a mostly empty […]

Ok, before I share what I had intended to post yesterday, I will release my first (and I’m sorry to say it will probably not be my last or even second last) bitch blast of this WEG. What has gone entirely wrong so far:   1. The dressage inspection (aka jog) was moved from 11 am […]

No, I’m not being profane. GDF is not twitter-speek for an insult too nasty to spell out. If you a) are saving your pennies by skipping WEG and b) are a DQ or wannabe DQ, then you should head on over to the Netherlands in October for the tenth annual Global Dressage Forum. I was […]