Selena:
Well, we made it to the top ten. Eigth in fact. I am so happy with his show jumping round. We finaly got our mojo back. My last two warm up fences gave me the feel I had last year of how to make him jump clear. The rail I did knock down was the hardest fence in the arena as far as I was concerned. On a left turn, towards giant flapping walls of plastic. A very tall vertical with just three rails and no ground line of any kind. As I am flying thru the air over it, a hidden camera on the left near the standard burried in flowers goes off at a million frames per second. The noise the lense shutter made was loud and quick and startled him badly enough to make him drop his legs. I was very happy for the way we both recovered and didn’t hit anymore after that little hiccup. It was a tuff course… plenty of good riders and horses were having rails down. I REALLY wanted a clear round… but I am happy with my eighth place finish and I don’t feel that the rail we had was anyones fault in particular. Next time I show jump him I will use a ear bonnet to help him with surprise noises. Anything to help my super hero Colombo! Long drive tomorrow… I am pretty sure mum will be doing the first leg of the trip, as I am not a morning person at the best of times. Three cheers for team Hawkridge!
Morag:
The trot up at eight means we got up at four this morning. Up to the barn, wash his legs, put his electromagnetic blanket in place, braid, bath, polish and walk – basically a full day’s work by eight am. Our trot up went smoothly, one or two horses were held and passed on re-inspection, only one horse was spun, and that was Kelly Prather who had had a lousy week from start to finish, culminating this morning at the jog. Kelly is not the sort to let one lousy show stop her progress and we can expect to hear from that particular Californian again. I know she will be back next year to kick some serious butt.
The Canadians were spectacular. 5th for Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch, 8th Selena, 9th Hawley Bennet-Awad, with the amazing ‘Gin and Juice’, 10th Michele Mueller and Amistad. That is four in the top ten, a fantastic finish for the country and a great look forward to the WEG.
After the prizegiving in the ring, there is champagne and nibblies for the winners and thier owners and friends. Pam, Selena and I trooped up and were met there by Colombo’s owners. The stall vendors give out extra prizes which are distributed by a draw. This way, everyone gets an even chance at some wonderful prizes. The one I wanted was the 4 tires from Bridgestone, but alas, it was not to be.
Selena visited the booths of some of her sponsors to thank them for thier support. These companies are the ones that show as logos at the side and top of the blog. They are a huge help and support to us and I hope some of you will find the time to click through to their websites and browse what they have to offer.
Tonight Colombo’s owners took the three of us to dinner to celebrate and we had a lovely evening in lovely company but I am falling asleep at the keyboard trying to type this. All the tension of the past few days has kept me up and alert pretty much 18 hours a day and now the tension is gone, I find myself very interested in finding my bed! Tomorrow we make the long drive home and after her week here, Selena is absolutely wiped and will no doubt need to do some serious napping on the way home.
Ollie Townend was at the show today. I didn’t see him myself, but I gather he was looking a bit sore. He has a cracked collar bone, three cracked ribs, a craced sternum and a cracked shoulder. OUCH. Having him there made everthing perfect, all our spirits lifted as soon as they announced he had arrived. As I said before, eventers really don’t like to see one of thier own hurt.
Can’t stay awake now…. I am sure there are lots of other things I meant to tell you, but “tomorrow is another day”
