The weeks turn into months and fly by. It is really hard to keep track of simple things like the day of the week unless a major show is on the horizon and then each day is weighed and measured to fit into the schedule. On an Olympic year there are all sorts of pre-requisites that have to be done.  Selection trials, training camps and all the stress and worry that goes along with the process. However, there are other little stresses and worries that you might not think of.

For instance, Selena’s passport was due for renewal. The Olympic committee demands that an accredited passport have at least six months to run at the time of the Olympics. Selena’s was going to be out of date inside the six month window. However, she needed the passport to get into the USA in January so she sent it off to Ottawa with her photos etc as soon as she got down to Ocala. Some weeks later, back it all came with a notice that the photos were cropped too short top and bottom…OK…onward and upward. Selena got more photos taken and this time she sent it off Fed Ex as by now it was February and the IOC needed the passport info for accreditation by March 21st. Not quite panic time, but already getting stressful.  Some weeks later….about the beginning of March, back came the photos…shadow too close to edges (both sets of photos taken by professional passport photographer). OK, NOW WE PANIC.  Selena dropped everything, drove into town, had the photos done again and once more Fed Ex’d her application to Ottawa at $80 a shot for mailing! That was at the end of the first week of March. On the following Thursday the 15th, she got an email from Equine Canada saying the date she had to have her passport information was now the 16th NOT the 21st as we had first been told. Selena phoned Ottawa, phoned her MP in Kingston, phoned Equine Canada and explained her position. Ottawa passport office said the only way she could do it was to be there in person the next day.  She explained that she couldn’t because she didn’t have a passport to fly with! The MPs office were great and they did their best to get the information released either to them or to the Canadian embassy in Florida. Equine Canada said they would try to get an extension from the IOC. Through all of this, I was standing ready to drive to Ottawa at a moment’s notice if it was going to be of any use. Finally, on the AFTERNOON of Friday 16th the IOC said they would give her an extension to the Tuesday and the passport office said they would try to get the information to her by then. This was a big step forward as they had said all along that they would not release the information unless she was there in person. Phew…Tuesday afternoon she got the passport number and EC passed it on to the powers that be. No stress…

The selection trials were going well. Colombo was awesome at Red Hills with a good dressage, a fabulous and fast cross country and one rail in a difficult stadium putting her in fourth place at the finish. The next selection trial was The Fork on the way home from Ocala to Canada. Originally, we had meant to stay in Ocala until Rolex, however, David O asked Selena not to run him at Rolex, instead they wanted her to run at Jersey Fresh (next week) and Bromont less than a month later. A pretty intense schedule as he will have done a three star a month for four months in a row. Colombo is 18 this year, but nobody has told him. He very much wants to play the game and has been producing fast and enthusiastic cross country runs all year. At The Fork something got him riled up. Maybe he was just a bit over fit but he was NOT interested in dressage. He put in his worst dressage ever, but redeemed himself with a fantastic cross country and stadium round.

Solo however, has not put in a decent dressage in a couple of months. He is romping round the three stars and we want him to run at Rolex next year, but he has to get the whole dressage thing more consistent. We will probably focus on his dressage this summer and may not event him at all until later in the year. He needs to go and do some dressage shows where he does NOT get to go XC afterwards. We hope this will cool his jets after a few tests.

Foxwood High has just gone from strength to strength.  We resisted pressure to take him Advanced and 3* this year, despite the fact that he is long listed for London. He has already gone from Training to Pan Am silver medal in less than one year, we felt he needed to consolidate his Intermediate and 2* performance. He will do the 2* at Bromont then have a little break before doing a couple of Advanced horse trials, perhaps Richland Park for one.  It’s very exciting to think he will also be going Advanced soon.  I suppose they all grow up, you just have to be patient.