Aftermath

Day 7 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

The importance of a thing can be judged by the effect. Rolex has impacted my life in both the short-term & the long.

Previous Horse hated, in no particular order: mud, uneven terrain, outside courses, & solid fences. Eventing was not his thing. Therefore, he was always deeply perturbed the week after Rolex. I’d come home all wired on eventing and make him do hill-work or gallops, on the theory that they could only help him in the jumper ring, no? He’d project a long-suffering air of ‘I am not an event horse’ & ‘I do this under protest’ or ‘Will you please get over yourself?’ He’d wear me down after a week or so,

Then, in 2000, my Rolex week was particularly arduous. A work-hard, party-on, sleep-when-you’re-dead kind of time. I was so tired on the 8-hour drive that I contemplated getting a hotel room an hour from home. However, I had a rental car to return. I soldiered on. Arrived at the airport. Returned car, located hubby & decanted self into passenger seat. Zoned out. At our driveway, hubby picked up the mail & dropped the pile in my lap. The following thoughts crawled through my brain at seriously sub-light speed. Oh look, a card. From the in-laws. Why did my mother-in-law send hubby a card? Um, it’s addressed to both of us. Why did my mother-in-law send us a card? …two….three …. four. Holy Happy Couple, Batman! It’s our anniversary! Hubby was thrilled. He had forgotten our 6th. Now he was redeemed and inoculated against future occurrences. I will live that down never.

PSA lecture for today
Despite my deep admiration for Kentucky bourbon, I feel compelled to contribute a balancing message on the use and overuse of alcohol. It is a mind- & body-altering drug and should be treated as such. As the years go by, I am seeing

A) the enormous social cost. We were paged out early one morning and arrived to see a van tipped on its side. I asked the officer in charge whether the crash was alcohol-related. “It’s 2 am,” he said. “Of course, alcohol was involved.” The driver had consumed so much, we were amazed she found her car, much less drove it.

B) my own growing disinterest in the hobby, for a variety of dreary personal reasons, starting with a decreasing ability to be amused by a hangover.

Truth-in-advertsing. Once this is posted, I will treat myself to a celebratory shot of Basil Hayden’s in honor of Rolex 2012. Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Results
Winner: PARKLANE HAWK & William Fox-Pitt
US Winner: ARTHUR & Allison Springer
Lanterne Rouge: TULLIBARDS HAWKWIND & Jordan Linstedt

LINKS to get you started: [There’s way more out there]
Rolex K3DE
RLX: real-time scoreboard.
USEA
Eventing Nation
EN: Four-Star Rookies
EN: Random Rolex Thursday Notes, Photos and Videos
EN: The Rolex XC Photos
EN: Sunday Morning at Rolex
EN: Rolex Kentucky Show-Jumping Pics
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing
COH: James C. Wofford Walks The Rolex Kentucky Cross-Country Course
Horse Junkies United
HJU: costume commentary on the jog
HJU: Top 10 after Cross-Country at Rolex 2012
HJU: Rolex Kentucky Top Ten: William Wins, Allison 2nd, Boyd 3rd and 8th
&
A shout out to Horse Channel‘s coverage:
William Fox-Pitt wins the 2012 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
William Fox-Pitt and Parklane Hawk lead after cross-country at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
Allison Springer and Arthur move into the lead at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
Boyd Martin and Remington XXV take the early lead at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
57 Horses to Start in 2012 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event
Horse Illustrated (along with the USDF) has been kind enough to employ me during the downturn, so I’m happy to retaliate with some blog love.

From Inside The Ropes

Day 6 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Time to be positive. Originally, I planned to indulge in a rant on the state of American riding, cross-country and otherwise. However, after reading Donna Freedman’s post on not cluttering up email inboxes, I realize any complaints would only add only to the negative energy of the universe. Instead, three happy memories of fence judging:

The most brilliant piece of riding I ever saw was at a simple oxer coming downhill from the Hollow, about where the 14AB The DuBarry Double Corners where were this year. Karen O’Connor came screaming down the hill at nice ground-covering gallop. Before the fence she gathered her horse just enough for him to power over happily in stride. She stayed in perfect balance, holding but not tugging the horse’s face, and pushing his hindquarters up underneath. Yeah that. That’s how I want to ride.

I wrote this about Rome, but it could be Lexington:

Much of Saturday resembled a big event anywhere: open green spaces, beautiful horses, well-built fences, lovely footing. You start off thrilled to be there and unable to believe your luck. You enjoy watching this big-name horse or that big-time rider. Mark Todd really is tall and angular, yet you’d give significant portions of your anatomy to ride the way he does. After about 50 horses you start to hope the end is in sight. It could be equine paradise, but you are cold, wet and tired of standing on your feet. After about 75 horses, you realize it is almost over and do not want to see it end.

Taken from “Guidice For A Giorno (Judge For A Day)”, USCTA News, May/June 1999.

The art of fence judging. Rules change, but the need for judgement, patience, and leadership remains. Required for all fence judges and competitors – who ought to be fence judges anyway. Originally raved about in “Footnotes”, USCTA News, Issue Five, 2001. [Allen 1994]

Results
Leader after dressage: PARKLANE HAWK & William Fox-Pitt
Lanterne Rouge: TULLIBARDS HAWKWIND & Jordan Linstedt

LINKS to get you started: [There’s way more out there]
Rolex K3DE
RLX: real-time scoreboard.
USEA
Eventing Nation
EN: Four-Star Rookies
EN: Random Rolex Thursday Notes, Photos and Videos
EN: The Rolex XC Photos
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing
COH: James C. Wofford Walks The Rolex Kentucky Cross-Country Course (This year, I checked.)
Horse Junkies United
HJU: costume commentary on the jog
HJU: Top 10 after Cross-Country at Rolex 2012
[My system doesn’t do videos, so you’re on your own there. Many available.]

What is your favorite officiating memory?

Foto Friday: Celebrity Mounted Games

Day 5 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

The best show on the grounds is Big Name Riders doing cameos in the Prince Phillip Cup. For the nonhorsefolks among us that means big people on small ponies playing horseback games at top speed. This works because a) so many eventers started in Pony Club & b) all of them are competitive speed freaks. (I mean this in the nicest possible way. I ride way better in jump-offs than in first rounds. Less time to overthink.) [photos from 2008]






These ponies KNOW these games. Since the goal is speed, the ponies u-turn at the far end of the ring and run back to the start, expecting their riders to vault aboard on the fly. Adults who try to mount in the normal fashion end up with one foot in the stirrup, one foot on the ground, and their pony hopping up and down, thinking, ‘C’mon! C’mon! We gotta GO!’

Results
Leader after dressage: Allison Springer & Arthur
Lanterne Rouge: Beth Perkins & Sal Dali

LINKS to get you started: [There’s way more out there]
Rolex K3DE
RLX: real-time scoreboard.
USEA
Eventing Nation
EN: Four-Star Rookies
EN: Random Rolex Thursday Notes, Photos and Videos
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing
COH: James C. Wofford Walks The Rolex Kentucky Cross-Country Course (This year, I checked.)
Horse Junkies United
HJU: costume commentary on the jog
[My system doesn’t do videos well, so you’re on your own there. Many available.]

What was your favorite childhood mounted activity?

Digital Killed the Party

Day 4 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Covering every angle. In all honesty, this photographer probably looked this way before digital.

The press tent isn’t fun anymore. I have the gray hair. I’ve done the time. Let the curmudgeoning begin.

Back in the day, when the competition and the press conferences were over, writers and photographers were done. No horses to photograph. No riders to interview. The evenings were our own. We, um, filled that time.

My second most memorable night occurred during the Washington International Horse Show when I turned left instead of right out of a restaurant parking lot after a late evening. I ended up in a rental car driving through deepest Northeast in the o-dark hundreds. Not the place you want to find yourself as a young woman on her own. I took to driving through red lights in the desperate hope that the police would stop me and get me out of Dodge. My most memorable night is not something I care to relive. Suffice to say, people were surprised to see me at the show the next day. Then, there was the time I got lost in Lexington because I got distracted and followed a firetruck instead of the directions. I could go on…

Now, once the show is over, photographers are uploading shots for their clients and posting albums on their own pages. Writers are madly composing and posting daily updates for one or more venues. Or, more and more often, writer/photographers are doing both. If there is a party, folks go for the snacks and head back to the press tent to commune with their laptops. Industrious, yes. Entertaining, no.

Of course, now that I am on the receiving end, I love the costume commentary on the jog by Horse Junkies United or checking the real-time scoreboard. But I appreciate the cost to the people who make it possible.

Results
Leader after day 1 of dressage: Boyd Martin and Remington XXV
Lanterne Rouge: Jessica Hampf and High Society
When I see high score – in eventing low score leads – I have to wonder if there was generalized tension, if the rider forgot where to go, or if the horse staged a spectacular display of being fundamentally fed up with where he was. (To steal mercilessly from D. Adams, the source of so many beautiful quotes.)

LINKS to get you started: [There’s way more out there]
Entries & handicapping thereof, as only Jimmy Wofford can.
[4/26 Apologies. The Wofford link is to 2011, as it says in big black numbers. Blame the mare.]

Rolex K3DE Featured Rider blogs
Doug Payne
James Alliston
Jan Byyny

Coverage
Rolex K3DE
USEA
Eventing Nation
EN: Four-Star Rookies
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing

Photography
Clix

How has the digital age changed your life?

Riding at Rolex

Day 3 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

The Jog

There was a microsecond where I felt what it might be like to be a Rolex competitor. It was both an illusion and one of the high points of my life. It happened thusly:

In April of 2010, Rolex was practicing for WEG later that year, including elaborate credentialing and security guard scanning of same. I was volunteering at a fence on cross-country (Assistant, Assistant Fence Judge, if you must know). Therefore, my credentials said COMPETITION in contrast to volunteers who would not be on “the field of play”. Even on days you didn’t volunteer, you worn your credentials for admission and identification. It was early in the week and early in the day. I was, on a fluke, reasonably well-dressed on account of the cold morning. I was probably one of the first volunteers this security guard had seen.

Picture us. Me older, nicely dressed in a sweater and silk scarf. Her, younger, on assignment from the security company, possibly knowing zip about horses in general or eventing in particular. She scans my credentials, looks up at me, and, with awe in her voice, says, “Good luck!” Well, yeah, I hope everything goes well. Wait. What? She thinks I’m riding. Me. Rolex. Riding. Me. Wow, what if I really was getting ready to jog my horse today? I was struck speechless. I merely smiled and walked past her in a mesmerized cloud.

Until Rolex adds a Baby Novice division, this is as close as I’m going to get. I’ll take it.

Results
One horse eliminated at the jog. That has to, as my college roommate used to say, suck pond water. (Why pond water? If you’d ever ingested any, you wouldn’t need to ask.)

LINKS
Entries & handicapping thereof, as only Jimmy Wofford can.
[4/26 Apologies. The Wofford link is to 2011, as it says in big black numbers. Blame the mare.]

Rolex K3DE Featured Rider blogs
Doug Payne
James Alliston
Jan Byyny

Coverage
Rolex K3DE
Eventing Nation
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing

Photography
Clix

What was your big moment?

Lexington, sorta

Day 2 of my Journey of the Spirit to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Although technically a trip to Lexington, Kentucky, a trip to Rolex means spending every waking hour at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Map of KHP by Spence Mallard

Despite years of visits, I can only offer three places in Lexington that I have done more than drive past:

Hunt-Morgan House
A slice-of-life, restored mansion that was home to both a Confederate General and the first Kentuckian to win a Nobel Prize (Physiology, 1933). Ably staffed by volunteers, including the generous souls who tolerated a Yankee in their midst at all those mint julep testing sessions over the years.

DeSha’s
A vortex in the center of town. You will eat there. Resistance is futile. To accommodate you and everyone you know, the restaurant has warrens of rooms extending into most of the buildings on the block. It’s not just an institution, it’s an octopus.

Dudley’s
The crowd is tres See & Be Seen, but the chefs are brilliant and the waiters supportive of a scruffy, solo diner who’s just there for the food.

[Addendum April 25
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
One of the great bookstores in this country. How could I forget? Babysitting a lame mare must be disordering my mind more than I realize.]

LINKS
Entries & handicapping thereof, as only Jimmy Wofford can.
[4/26 Apologies. The Wofford link is to 2011, as it says in big black numbers. Blame the mare.]

Rolex K3DE Featured Rider blogs
Doug Payne
James Alliston
Jan Byyny

Coverage
Rolex K3DE
Eventing Nation
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing

Photography
Clix

Where did you have your best meal ever?

Peregrinatio in Stabilitate

“Pilgrimages of the heart, not of the feet.”
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
Ken Jennings [Scribner 2011]

Both horses are in high investment/low return mode at the moment. Instead of perseverating on their lack of progress, I will spend this week in a journey of the spirit to Central Kentucky. In the eventing world, the last weekend in April means the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.

Outside of a few purists in Lexington, no one calls it the Kentucky Three-Day. The horse world calls it Rolex. As in, have you ever been to Rolex? A U.S. rider dreams of riding at Rolex. I think this could be a Rolex horse. It may be the most perfect union of sponsor and event in advertising history.

For over a decade, today would have been given over to frenzied packing. Squashing work files, cameras, computer, 3 different sets of volunteer uniforms, sturdy boots, rainwear, sun hat, kitchen sink into the back of a rental car. From the first four-star (1998) through WEG (2012 2010), I went to Kentucky for the week. I’d either volunteer or cover it for a magazine, or – in fortunate and hectic years – do both. I got good at zipping up and down Nina Bonnie Boulevard, the main road bisecting the Kentucky Horse Park. I’ve told my husband, if I ever go missing look for me in Kentucky. How can I not love a state whose major exports are Thoroughbred horses & bourbon? Then my life reorganized and Rolex – amazingly – staggers on without me.

I could paint pictures of galloping horses, green grass, and stone fences but my vacation slides don’t rivet as do those of travel writer Tim Cahill. I’ll skip to the take-home message. Go. If you’ve ever wanted to attend Rolex, or Devon, or the Quarter Horse Congress, do so. Every discipline has a high-end horse show as festival: world-class competition, oodles of like-minded folks, old friends from every part of your life, and shopping. I am not a shopasaurus [Retail Therapy] but even my wallet takes a beating at the Rolex Trade Fair. I keep threatening that next year, I’m going to run down the aisle throwing twenties at random intervals. It would be cheaper.

A conversation with Five Reflections reminded me of a time last year when I was attempting a haiku a day. In honor of that project & this week, I give you an eventing haiku, if not artistically valid at least a string of 17 syllables:

Rolex
Dressage: be precise.
Cross Country: gallop boldly.
Show Jumping: go clean.

LINKS
Entries & handicapping thereof, as only Jimmy Wofford can.
[4/26 Apologies. The Wofford link is to 2011, as it says in big black numbers. Blame the mare.]

Rolex K3DE Featured Rider blogs
Doug Payne
James Alliston
Jan Byyny

Coverage
Rolex K3DE
Eventing Nation
The Chronicle of the Horse, Eventing

Photography
Clix

What would be your dream horse vacation?