The price I paid for three glorious days in the Florida sunshine was a snow covered car and 22 degree temperatures in Lexington when I returned this morning.
It was worth it.
GLORIOUS
Seeing Ravel and Steffen Peters win the grand Prix at the Exquis World Dressage Masters was well worth the harsh reality of home. Ravel has grown up, improved and changed since I last saw him in 2009. He looks fantastic and just romped through the Grand Prix with ease for Steffen leaving two of the very best (Salinero and Satchmo) in his wake.
Friday was a day of meetings and wandering around at the horse show before the USET Foundation Party where I saw Bruce Springsteen and almost died of happiness. It was also fun to catch up with all kinds of friends I haven’t seen in ages. Georgina Bloomberg, Phillip and Evie Dutton, Kevin Keane were all in attendance, the Foundation threw a great party – they raised plenty of money and everyone had a lovely time at the International Polo Club’s elaborate tent. Jenny van Wieren and I debated buying WEG Dressage Discipline Manager Lloyd Landkamer the WEG Dressage Package in the silent auction (FREE ON SITE PARKING) in his absence, when we informed him over text messaging he didn’t see the humor… we thought we were hilarious. People with far deeper pockets than us bought the packages and our teams look to be on the right track with the beginning season and their fundraising effort.
Plans for 2010 NAJYRC are well underway and everyone in Florida seems pretty pumped. Allyn Mann – our most enthusiastic supporter from our title sponsor Adequan – was there because they are sponsoring this week of the horse show and it is hard not to catch Allyn’s enthusiasm.
Saturday morning started with a phone call from Evie who was stranded because the Philadelphia airport was closed due to the blizzard. We got her fetched from the airport and then all met at the horse show where we watched Leslie Morse win in the Grand Prix Special, in a much improved effort from Thursday and then next door watched Cedric – the hugely popular diminutive Gold medalist from 2008, jump to second in the 1.50m class. Laura Kraut gave him a great ride and he looked brilliant in his prep for the USEF Selection Trials for the US Show Jumping Team for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games which get going at the end of the month.
Standing in the sunshine never felt so good.
Leslie and Tip Top Strutting Their Stuff
Work, work, work around the horse show (I think I spent 12 hours there yesterday) and then a quick snack before the Grand Prix Freestyle started.
Ravel returned to the ring in all his glory, very fresh and the crowd went wild. Some little mistakes didn’t take away from a brilliant ride but Anky and Salinero were pretty perfect and even Steffen’s one-handed changes weren’t enough to sneak by the reigning Olympic Gold medalist. Steffen, as always handled the entire thing with class and dignity. Isabell Werth was third – the three of them were the classiest of acts.
Hopefully everyone got back to their respective places... but there are way worse places to be stuck than in Wellington.
Back to the grind tomorrow – the grind just isn’t as fun when its freezing.
Sue Stickle and I Having Some Fun