Holy Moses that was a day not to miss. It’s too late in the evening now and I’m almost cross eyed from so many early mornings, but I’ll be back with my usual blow by blow of freestyles by the time most of you are pouring your first cuppa’ tomorrow morning. I’ll leave you with […]

I’ve had a feeling for months that this was going to be the year that Off To Paris would come into her own and carry Lauren Barwick back onto the podium. I’m delighted to report that I was right. Lauren followed yesterday’s bronze medal performance with a brilliant ride in the freestyle today. 76.25% and […]

Someone PLEASE turn down the music in here. The background music they normally play during dressage to cancel out random noise that bothers the horse, and to lull the borderline interested into a light snooze, is being played at near rock concert volume. I imagine the point is to render dressage more palatable by making […]

What a way to spend your birthday, posting a personal best, and at the World Championships no less. I think Belinda was the first rider of the morning to improve on her GP score. Everyone before her had failed to do so; in fact, I think all but one had actually done less well today. […]

Competitors who have never even subconsciously contemplated rule-breaking will be subjected to the type of surveillance one normally associates with electronically-tagged bank robbers out on parole, when the WEG endurance ride sets off from Sartilly on Thursday. “Tamper-proof” GPS units on both horse and rider are among high-tech measures to enforce new rules rushed in […]

I was rattling off a list of judging sins that I’ve witnessed today to my colleague and pal Pamela Young, and she cleverly dubbed my rant the Sin Bin. So here are a few judging sins I’ve observed today, in no particular order: Parzival: The blind eyes turned toward his totally unlevel hind legs in […]

Was a very busy day! I hacked and did a little flat with the Woodster. He felt really good after his gallop the day before. Not tired or stiff, just happy. 🙂 I packed up all my stuff and AM packed all Woody’s gear. The vet came to finalize the horses’ papers around 5:00 p.m. […]

The morning was fairly uneventful. Had a team meeting about logistics for tomorrow’s trip to France. 🙂 In the afternoon, we shipped the horses 30 minutes down the road to Bradbury Castle for a gallop on all-weather terrain. Was four furlongs uphill. Racehorses use it. Jessica and Peter went first, then Hawley and I went. […]

Today we started a little earlier so we could get away on time for show jumping at Rectory farm. What a great venue – super footing and lovely colored jumps. Course was all set we just had to raise it to scary height. 😉 Jessica and Peter went first, then Hawley and I. Everyone’s horses […]

What a way to start day two of team dressage, with the amazing Isabell and her beautiful Bella Rose. It’s another world from yesterday to watch the likes of Isabell. Worth getting up at 5:30 am for, without a doubt.  It’s only a month and a bit since Aachen, but it’s plain to see that […]