WEG and three cool things that got me there

I'm sure you're all aware that I entered the Purina contest to win a chance to blog for Purina at WEG. If you know that, then you most likely know that I lost that contest. You may also know that my family banded together to pool some money to send me to WEG. So generous of them, and completely unexpected!

That was cool thing #1.

So I roped my trainer into going with me, and I bought tickets to four events on the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th days of the competition. I was super stoked when they came in the mail.

Then I started looking at hotel rooms. WOWZA. The hotel industry isn't kidding around with those room prices. A crappy little hotel close to the Kentucky Horse Park that I've stayed in once is charging $350 a night for a room. I paid $65 a night, and it was overpriced considering the condition of the place. And I'm pretty sure the price will go back to $65 once WEG is over.

It seemed like the close hotels were super expensive, and even the gross little hotels were too much. Since Active Travel was a co-sponsor with Purina on the contest, I contacted the Purina contest coordinator Brant (that might not be his official title but that's what I'm calling him here to make it easy) and asked him if he could give me a contact for Active Travel. I wanted to see if an actual travel agency could help me find a room that wasn't a Roach Motel that also wasn't $450 a night.

Brant said that he would give me a contact, but he also had hotel and ticket packages available for the first four days of WEG if I was interested. Am I interested?? Hell yes I am! It sounded like he was offering to GIVE me the package, but I didn't want to assume anything so I asked him flat out - is this comped or do I have to pay for it? He said in consideration of everything I did for the contest the package would be free, and that I should consider it a consolation prize. Then a few weeks later I asked if he had any extra packages for sale for a friend of mine, and he said he didn't have any for sale but he had an extra ticket pack that he'd send to me.

This was cool thing #2.

I'll be staying at a SUPER nice hotel for the first four days, all free of charge! After that I'll have to stay farther from the Horse Park in a decent hotel, but who cares!! Then the tickets from Brant came in the mail and I was even more blown away. Look at how freaking awesome they are!!









Much cooler than my boring Ticketmaster tickets! The Opening Ceremony ones have "2010" in a goldish hologram running up the side, and each of the Reining and Dressage tickets has a cool hologram on it with the WEG logo and "2010". And Brant sent me some tickets to the Maker's Mark hospitality tent (how did he know I love bourbon?) and the Endurance hospitality tent. Now I don't know what those will mean but again, awesome!

After I lost the contest I then tried to trade my WEG blogging to get support for Para Dressage WEG competitor Laura Goldman. I tried and tried, and it seemed that nobody could help me. Then, Jane from Equestrian Collections contacted me and we worked out a deal where they would support Laura by donating some funds and riding attire and I'd blog for them. They were able to get Laura within about $300 of what she needed to pay her expenses for WEG. Because of all of this I know this really cool lady, Laura, and I will get to see her at WEG, living a dream that so few of us will ever accomplish - representing our country in International equestrian competition.

This was cool thing #3.

So what does this teach us?

#1 - Have a stellar family.
#2 - It doesn't hurt to ask for help. You might end up with free tickets (or something more than you asked for)
#3 - Share your good fortune with others and help them out. You just might help someone else realize their dreams.