WEG Day 9

Today all that was really going on was the stadium jumping for the eventing. It didn't start until 1:00 pm, so we took our time getting to the park. It was supposed to be like 50 degrees and sprinkling rain, so I put on three shirts and two pairs of jeans. It was a bit tight but it was the only way I was going to be warm and not have to buy more clothes. Sure I still had my nice blanket but I hate being cold!

We got to the park early and went to see the Alltech Experience. It was interesting, but really nothing fantastic, but free! Then we decided to pay the $10 and see the Arabian horse exhibit “A Gift from the Desert”. It included a lot of artifacts revolving around Arabian horses and horses in general dating back to 4000 BC. Like the Alltech Experience it was just okay. I wanted to get to the Al-Marah Arabian Horse Galleries but I just didn't have time. I know I'll be down here again for a horse show so I'll see it then.

Before the stadium jumping started I got to meet Glen the Geek from Horse Radio Network, and did a quick interview for his radio show that evening. Then we headed up to the stands to our seats. We had seats on one of the short ends of the arena but they weren't under the cover. We noticed during the freestyle night that there were like two rows of seats under the cover on the stadium side of the arena that nobody sat in, so we made the decision to try and sit there. It seemed like it was common that people would sit in available seats and just relocate to other seats if the actual owners of the seats showed up.

We were lucky and didn't have to move so we got great seats for the jumping! I got some video and photos, which I'm going to take home and process instead of trying to upload them now. Some of the highlights for the US team (that I can remember, and I hope I'm remembering correctly) – Buck Davidson had two rails down, Philip Dutton and Boyd Martin went clean, and Karen O'Connor had a refusal and a rail down. That pretty much put the US out of the medals. We ended up in 4th place for the team competition with no individual medals. Becky Holden was in 3rd place after cross country but didn't ride in stadium jumping. We don't know what happened, but we're thinking she might not have passed the jog this morning. I have no proof of this, so it's just speculation.

Right now I'm on the road, heading back to Cleveland, uploading this at a McDonalds! I had a great time, but I'm tired and I miss my family. I also miss my horse. I had my friend Susan stick him on the lunge line to see if he is still sound and she said he looked a little off. So I'll be dealing with that when I get home.

I hope to be checking in with Laura Goldman and her progress for the Para-Dressage. I'll update you all on that when I get it.

So that's it for WEG for me! Thanks to Purina for giving me four days of tickets and hotel, Equestrian Collections for sponsoring Laura Goldman, my friend Cindy for coming with me, and my husband Craig for single parenting for a week while I reveled in International caliber equestrian goodness.

Whew! What a ride...