Wednesday was a fun day. Megan Woods & Mike Campbell arrived and watched their horse Derg Boru (King Brian) work. Megan will be riding him for the rest of the week now that she’s here. King Brian and I showed Megan some of the things we’ve been working on in our dressage. He even halted square first try when his mummy was watching him.
I took Woody on a hack with Kyle Carter riding Finn. It was fun to hear stories of past horses he’s ridden at Rolex, one of which was Finn’s mother.
Anne Marie was busy braiding and quarter marks for the haunches. She was showing Chris some tricks of the trade. His previous experience is more with top jumpers. He is grooming for Lisa Marie Ferguson. In the end both our horses looked stunning, then it started to rain!
I put my fancy jog outfit from House of Angelis/Cybil Scot boutique in Kingston Ontario. I feel like a million dollars wearing their comfortable and incredibly fashionable clothes, shoes and accessories. I can’t thank JoAnne and Maria enough for their generosity.
Woody was well behaved. Much better then last year. I saw a naughty thought run past his eye while we halted in front of the ground jury. As we trotted of I whispered “don’t you dare” in his ear then flashed my smile for the cameras at the end of the jog strip. Woody made the right choice????
In the evening there’s a cocktail party at Spindle Top House. The riders put their name tags in a big silver bowl when they arrive to win a Rolex watch. At the party they announced that they’ve sold 90 000 tickets (not including walk in’s) already! Friday will be the largest attendance for dressage to date. It’s almost sold out!
Then the fun announcements by Dubarry boots, best dressed female and male for the first horse inspection. The riders were thanked for such a great effort. Sinead Halpin won best female and Joe Meyer won best male (he did wear a kilt).
Rolex is the presenting sponsor and they draw the riders name out of the big silver bowl…..Panda Christie won the Rolex watch this year. I’ve won it in the past when I rode Colombo. It’s all very exciting!
Happy smiling faces from Anne Marie Duarte and Selena O’Hanlon after the jog.
At home the horses are slowly recovering from their ‘bad’ vaccination. We are still watching them carefully and only doing light hacking. I am hoping by Friday that we will be able to do a light lesson.
