WEG Day 8

I woke up this morning and thought I wasn't going to be able to get out of bed. I felt like CRAP. But there was no way I was going to miss cross country. So we got me some cold meds and headed out to the park.

We spent most of the morning on the cross country course. In this case video would have been best, but photos were the best I could do (since my camera sucks it for video...well it takes good video but getting that video off the camera is painful...anyway..).

So here are lots of photos from the course. Starting at the beginning – in the starting box with American Becky Holden. The buzzer had just sounded and she sent her horse forward and onto the course.



Here are a few selected photos. All the jumps are HUGE!









The last shot is a rider from South Africa who jumped into the water and then lost his balance over the next fence and fell IN the water. He was wearing one of those inflatable vests that inflate when you hit the ground. The next picture is of him as he is being helped up. His horse boogied down the course and was caught further up the hill. It wasn't a bad fall and I think both horse and rider were okay.



There was at least one other fall on the course that I'm aware of, and I think it wasn't a bad fall either. There were refusals and other problems, but the only one I caught on film was just a horse that caught it's leg on a jump. He stumbled a bit as he landed but other than that it wasn't a problem. But you can see in this pic how his front leg is caught back on the jump.



The rest of the decent photos I uploaded to my Facebook page. In the beginning I was just figuring out the timing with this camera, so the first water jumps aren't very good. But by the end there I was getting some decent shots. Speaking of the end, here is a horse as he crosses the finish line.



As we were walking the course we saw obstacles that weren't being used for cross country that we think will be used for the cross country driving. The first picture is the driving stadium, and then next three are the hazards.










We spent four and a half hours walking the course. We walked six and a half miles and tried to see the whole course. At the beginning I was feeling pretty decent once the meds kicked in, but by the time we left I felt just awful. So we left before the last horses, including one USA rider, started the course. We went to dinner and then I laid in bed to write this post and download pictures.

Word is that the USA is in second place as a team and that two Americans are in the second and third spot overall. This is not confirmed, and I don't have any more details. My plan is to post this, take more meds and get into bed. Tomorrow is stadium jumping for the eventing and I want to feel better.

Tomorrow is also my last day at WEG! I hope I can enjoy it and not spend the whole time wishing I was napping.