October 19th
Made it to breaky again…damn I’m good. LOL!
We rode early. I was first to go at 8:30 a.m. Woody was a tiny bit sick of dressage today. Everyone watching said he looked great, but I think if he could have spoken it might have been less then positive mutterings about dressage. I don’t blame him there is NO WHERE to ride other than the rings. He has been ridden twice a day for some time now because there’s no turn out.
Our turn on the haunches is coming along quite quickly. We might even have it ready for Friday. All thanks to Woody’s workman like attitude. He almost never complains and never gives up. Makes for incredibly fast learning 🙂
At 10:30 a.m. was the briefing in the chapel at Santa Sofia Golf and Country club, aka the cross-country venue. Almost all the countries understand Spanish, so we got little headsets and a translator, which was pretty neat. The view from the chapel was amazing. After that, we all headed out to see the course for the first time. The footing looks pretty good. I grew up on a farm next to a golf course and ALWAYS wanted to ride on it. Well, since then I have ridden on one in Hong Kong and now one in Mexico. It had a few loops and some good hills. I’m glad all our horses are fit. Twenty-four jumps are well-built and decorated. There’s quite a bit to do out there. You can check out my pictures of the fences on O’Hanlon Eventing @ Facebook if you want.
After our two laps around the course in the hot sun, we needed to reboot before heading back to Hipca. So we went to the golf and country club restaurant. What a view! Swimming pool, nice breeze, excellent service. It was a great pause in the day. That’s when we all noticed a few of us had some serious sunburns going on. Oopps!
Victim of the hot Mexican sun!
I had sunscreen on, but not all over. I was wearing capris jeans with my Blundstones…makes for a very entertaining patch of sunburn on the back of my calves. Hawley took a picture for you all to see. The best part is that tomorrow we have jog and I’m wearing a dress…hmmm?? No bueno. No aloe with me either…ugh! Lots of Vaseline extreme moisturizer every 10 minutes!
When we got back to the barn, a few of the riders had a very short flat ride just to get the horses out again. Woody said he would rather stay in bed. He was laying down for a siesta in the afternoon. So I watched my teammates and gave Woody a kiss on the nose goodbye before heading back to the hotel to nurse my sunburn and see if my dress went past the line. It doesn’t, so I think nylons might be in order for tomorrow.
Jog tomorrow starts at 9:00 a.m. can’t wait for you guys to see our outfits…keeping up appearances you know.
