Selena and Foxwood High in all three phases at The Fork. Photo by Mike McNally
It has been a long gap, but in all fairness this time it was not all my fault. I wrote our adventures way back in March and the email gods chewed it up and spat it out as gobbledygook never to be resurrected. Soooooo, it’s now nearly Rolex and to be quite honest, it’s hard to think of anything else or remember the slightest detail as Rolex is now only days away. Selena is very excited to ride two horses at a four star, something she has never done before. It will be a huge help to Rocky to have Woody’s feedback from the course. Selena and Woody are second to go. It is sometimes considered detrimental to your dressage score to go early, but I think when you are at Rolex with the best and most experienced judges in the world, you have to go in there when it’s your time on the clock, strut your stuff, and believe in yourself and your training program.
On cross country I think it can be liberating to be first or second to go and just get out there with a plan and ride to your plan without other influences. Of course on show jumping day I am all about her going last!!
The Fork was the last run. After dressage and stadium the boys were sitting nicely placed with Woody in the top ten. However, Selena had already told her owners and myself that she was going to be running slow. First because she had a corner run out on them both – just a glance off but something that needs to be addressed, so she wanted to approach all the corners and skinnys at a steady pace and school the ride for Rolex. Also, she wanted to save legs. The Fork was as always well aerated and watered but the North Carolina red clay still has that ‘bone’ in the going and she did not want to run fast on it three weeks before their first four star. So 20 time penalties later, they finished ignominiously on careful clear rounds, as planned. As Selena says, going fast is not something she has a problem with, she needed to school the boys over those corners.
After the Fork, Selena drove on the Monday to Bruce Davidson’s farm in PA. She dropped the two Rolex horses off there and drove her Prelim ride and a Novice horse home on the Tuesday. On Wednesday she drove back to PA and is based there now with the two horses until she leaves for Rolex next week. At the moment she is entered to do the Advanced CT at Fairhill this weekend, however there is some doubt as to whether or not she will attend due to the equine herpes outbreak in the area. Starting in VA, two horses that I know of have now been put down in PA. Fairhill in Maryland is chic a bloc with racehorses coming and going and is right in the ‘horsey’ corridor between VA and PA. Selena was going to talk to the team vet and to Bruce Davidson to garner advice.
All has not been smooth on the return trip. Something horrible went on the truck the day they were meant to drive to The Fork. The truck had to go into the shop and there it had to stay until the end of the week. The repair bill was astronomical and I felt I could have bought a new truck with it, however, it is part of being ‘on the road’ that if something goes, you have no choices, you have to repair or replace right there and then, there is no period of time to think about decisions. Everyone we know and some we didn’t offered Selena help to get her horses to The Fork. Christine Pitcairn lent her a truck, Brian Leith picked her truck up, drove it to NC then exchanged it for the borrowed truck and drove the borrowed truck home. Incidentally Brian’s wife is a fellow competitor as is Christine. In how many sports would so many people have come forward to do so much so quickly. Selena put the word out and people came forward in droves! Within a few hours of the breakdown all was reorganized and the horses left for the Fork early the following morning.
So Selena is in PA, Anne Marie Duarte who has been part of the Florida team all winter has come home to help me out until next week when she is off to Kentucky to groom for Selena. Emma Rafuse who has held the fort down here winter after winter is also going to Rolex for the week. In fact, most of our barn is going to Rolex for the week, the place is going to be like a ghost town.
We would like to thank Mike McNally for the wonderful photos he consistently GIVES us after the big events. These photos of Foxwood High are from The Fork this year. I put in the one of him lengthening as some of you will remember that medium and extended trots have always been a stress for Woody, he is getting it! If you go to our YouTube channel you will find some video footage of Bruce Davidson having a sit on Woody for the first time a few weeks ago and giving him a little school. Great video to watch the master at work.
Oh well….Rolex it is!
