Wild and Wooly XC

Yesterday (Saturday) was the cross country day of the 3-day eventing, and it was nuts.

First off, let me say that we were SHOCKED that we got on the train, got off the train, got on a shuttle immediately, got to the course just in time, finished watching, got back on a shuttle immediately, and then got back on a train to go home with NO issues!  It was really amazing because we were really worried due to our previous experience with the shuttles.  The only thing is that we had to take the train from Caen to Argentan where the national stud is which hosted 2 of the 3 days for eventing,  Haras du Pin (the national stud) is 17 kilometers or about 10.5 miles from the train station - hence the shuttles - it took us an hour each way to get there because it is a 2 lane road (with traffic circles) the whole way.  Did I mention that 50,000 people attended the event and had to get there one way or another? I about had a conniption on the way there because Buck Davidson and Reggie for the USA were first, and we got there with only minutes to spare before he started.  The scenery on the way was lovely though.

Onto the action of the day.  We got there in time to see Buck & Reggie start, but unfortunately did not see them finish because of 2 refusals at fence 30, which claimed a lot of victims.  It was a drop into the water, 2-3 strides to jump up a bank, bounce to a SUPER skinny fish, then a one stride to get out of the water.  There was a long route too, but we did't watch that fence enough to see the route.  It was crazy.  I think the skinny jump was literally only wide enough for a horse to squeeze through.  So that was disappointing that the first rider of the day, and for the USA did not make it to the finish.  Except that set the stage for the rest of the day.  Phillip Dutton and Oscar didn't finish because he got tired, which is something that horse struggles with.  Phillip and Buck were among the 30 people who didn't finish out of the 90 that started.

Buck & cutie pie Reggie (USA)

Phillip & Trading Aces (Oscar)

Phillip & Oscar (USA)

All the equestrian news outlets talked about the wet ground and it was terrible.  I had on knee high boots and there were even moments where those felt like they were going to be suctioned off from the mud it was so deep and thick.  We looked at the galloping track and the ground there was so squishy that you could see where horses' feet had sunk 6 inches into the grass.  We saw 2 falls today, both of which were pretty scary.  Mark Todd, who is one of the most experienced riders didn't make it over the aforementioned skinny fish, and he and Leonidas II both fell down the bank.  They got up right away, but I still really hate seeing falls.  The other fall we saw was a Swedish girl Anna Hilton with Matrix W.  It was really scary.  We walked up just in time to see legs flailing in the air as they went down (also at fence 30).  Anna got up right away but the horse stayed down.  We we really afraid he'd broken something or died on the spot, but after a few minutes he got up and walked away.  We later overheard a Canadian photographer say that the horse was just stuck, so they took off his saddle, poured some water on him to cool him down, gave him a little rest, and then used rope to flip him over on his other side so he could get up.  Even so, Mother and I were both crying because nobody wants to see a horse die on course, doing what they love.  Speaking of the dying, that British horse, Wild Lone, that died upon completion of the course seemed to be struggling.  The rider, Harry Meade said he felt fine, but both Mother and I separately thought it sounded like the horse was breathing harder than the others that went by.  I can't judge too much because I don't know the horse, but that is my commentary on that situation.  Aside from all the thrills and spills it was great.  It's always fun to see William Fox-Pitt go, all the American girls and Boyd looked amazing on course, Michael Jung's new horse looks fantastic.  It was great.

Michael Jung & Fischerrocana FST (Germany)

Sinead Halpin & Manoir de Carneville (Tate)

Sinead Halpin & Tate (USA) over the skinny fish that gave everyone trouble

WFP & Chilli Morning (GBR) 

Ingrid Klimke & FRH Escada JS (Germany)

Kim Seversen & Fernhill Fearless (USA)

Lynn Symansky & Donner (USA) 

Hawley Bennett-Awad & Gin N Juice (Canada) 

Boyd & Shamwari 4 with Phillip and David

Selena O'Hanlon with Foxwood High (Canada)

Andrew Nicholson & Nereo (NZ)

Commentary on the venue.  The scenery could not be beat with Haras du Pin in the background, but it looked like a logistical nightmare.  They wouldn't let spectators on some sides of the galloping lane, so everyone was really crammed all into the middle, in the mud no less.  It also seemed like 90% of the people out there were French, whereas with the other events its been more like 60% French, and they are very rude.  This is one of the few times I've thought the French were rude, contrary to their stereotype.  Numerous times, we'd have a spot and they would come push and shove and stand right in front of you to see.  I understand that does happen in the US as well, but I think more so Americans try to not get in your way, and if they do it's because they are oblivious and not because they just don't give a shit if they block your view.  Bathroom situation was alright.  Luckily we brought our own food and water otherwise we would've had to wait half the day to get french fries.  C'est la vie I suppose.

Not to keep complaining, but on top of everything, I am sick.  Probably from the plane.  It's just a cold but lordy I had the worst sinus pressure all day yesterday.  Feeling okay this morning, just stuffy/snotty/sneezy, so let's hope it stays that way.

We made a lovely, delicious dinner last night, complete with amazeballs pastries (duh).

The Kur

Today was the dressage musical freestlye, or as the rest of the world outside of the US calls it, the Kur.  Each rider creates their own test, set to music.  I hardly took any pictures of the riders 1) because I already have pictures of all of them from the 3 previous days 2) I wanted to watch 3) it is an ongoing goal of mine to not get so stuck behind the camera that I miss the experience.  I have a tendency to do that.  

It was lovely watching everyone go, particularly Diederick & Arlando from Holland (he's such a lovely, quiet rider), Laura & Verdades from the USA (she's American, trained the horse alone, and is a beautiful rider), and never to be overlooked, Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro.  It was spectacular to watch her go today as it was magic.  She had a few mistakes earlier this week, but today was flawless.  For my non-horse people reading this, Charlotte with Valegro is the #1 dressage rider in the world, won 2 Olympic gold medals, the dressage World Cup, and the European championships.  She broke the world record and then broke it again.  Basically they are going down in history as one of the greats of the equestrian world.  I am so incredibly lucky I got to see her go 3 times this week, because I likely will never see those two compete ever again.  They made it look so easy and fluid that it really was like dancing.  There are no words for how fantastic that team is together.

FEI President Princess Haya and the dressage judges

Princess Haya giving Charlotte her gold medal 

Blueberry getting some love while mom does ceremony things 

What an amazing team!!

Incredible, I know

Wish us luck for cross country tomorrow!  We have to travel to Argentan, 30 minutes away, and then from there take a shuttle 17 kilometers to the cross country venue, so lord knows if we will make it.  If so, it will be a miracle.  We're going armed with toilet paper, Dubarrys, and snacks!

Bayeux

We had Thursday off from the event, because Dressage had a rest day and we were unable to get tickets to Eventing Dressage, so we decided to go to Bayeux, which is a little scenic town 20 minutes away.  A lot of people going to WEG that could not find places to stay in Caen are staying in Bayeux.

It was super cute and made me feel more at home than Caen.  It had small streets, great views, adorable little canals, and a lot of old buildings intact.  What was surprising is that Bayeux is TINY, yet there were probably 10,000 people walking around yesterday, if not more.  There were so many people it was unbelievable!  What was even more incredible was that 80% of those people were English speakers from the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.  Apparently Bayeux is a stop for WW2 buffs but I was shocked.  Bayeux was very internationally friendly, with flags everywhere.  I suppose like St. Malo they were very appreciative of being liberated from the Germans, even 70 years later.

We had a great time there - good lunch of moules frites and beer, I bought some Calvados, which is their local liquor (apple brandy), wandering around the streets.  Despite the thousands of tourists, I was so much happier because Bayeux is more what I'm used to when it comes to French towns.  Although Caen is slowly growing on me.

On a different note, I am very excited because I think my French is better now than it was when I left!  I was so worried for months before coming here because I felt like I knew stuff still, for the most part, but then thought when I got over here I'd really have forgotten everything.  Luckily not!  The instances where I don't know what people are saying to me are few and far between, and my vocabulary is alright, but not amazing.  I'm just glad I'm not a French speaking disaster.

We had another great dinner last night, although the restaurant was sweltering.  I think we eat somewhere better and better each night!

Also, in case you were wondering, we aren't the only ones complaining about the venue - Eventing Nation

Grand Prix Special

Today was better in a lot of ways, thank goodness.

As I mentioned this morning - I got more sleep!  That helped a lot.  Tomorrow we have no events so we are going to go to a nearby town, Bayeux, so I can sleep in!!

We picked up Laura at the train station and took the city bus to the stadium instead of the shuttle (which is what I planned to do when we booked the apartment and surprisingly enough it worked out).  The bus is around the corner from our apartment.  We arrived early, no stress, it was lovely.  We watched dressage all day, which was pretty good, although I still wanted to fall asleep at some points.  Watching fancy prancing all day gets a hair old for me.  The USA did very well, with 2/3 riders in top ten - 8th (Laura Graves & Verdades) and 10th place (Steffen Peters & Legolas 92).  Considering the competition here, that is really spectacular.

We are learning more and more about how ill-planned this event was by the French (but really - they are French so what did we expect).   I made a joke this morning how they spent more time on their social media and videos to show in the stadium during breaks than the important stuff, like, bathrooms for example.  The bathrooms are THE controversial issue here.  So the main events - jumping and dressage take place in the Stade (stadium) d'Ornano.  The stadium seats 21,500 people.  They expect to fill the stadium for some events (it was half full today).  And there are TWENTY, count 'em 20, stalls total in the entire arena for women, and another 20 for men.  We figured, ROUGHLY today there were 5,000 women vying at 4 breaks during the day, to use 20 stalls.  To add insult to injury, the "bathrooms" are literally holes in the ground.  You have to squat.  Like you are in the woods.  With a line of 20 people waiting on you to do your business.  They don't even have extra porta potties outside.  It is absolutely ridiculous.

Additionally, everything is far apart, so as I mentioned yesterday, if you want to stretch your legs, you have nowhere to go.  Eventing is 30 minutes away, endurance is another 30 minutes away in another direction, the driving/para-dressage/reining/WEG Village is a 50 minute walk from the main arena.  It is just stupid how poorly this was planned.  We talked to an Australian owner of a para-dressage horse today on the bus, and she said she'd been to four WEGs, and even Rome, who had 18 months to plan because they were a backup when another venue fell through, did a better job than this.  France had four and a half years to plan this.  I am having fun, but certainly not nearly as much fun as I expected or had in Kentucky.

I am very lucky to be here to see these incredible riders and horses, but it is a challenge.

The day ended well because we got home relatively early at 5:30 or so, hung out a bit, went to a delish dinner at Archi Dona just a few minutes away from our place, and it was amazeballs.

Myself, Mother, and Laura!

Adrienne Lyle (USA) - Wizard 

Edward Gal (Holland) - Glock's Voice

Diederick von Silfhout (Holland) - Arlando NH N.O.P

Carl Hester (Great Britain) - Nip Tuck 

Laura Graves (USA) - Verdades

Kristina Sprehe (Germany) - Desperados FRH

WEG Day One

Yay FIRST DAY OF WEG!!

The bad thing is that today was kind of hard.  First off, the first round of individual dressage, and the team dressage started at 8 am.  So I had to wake up at 5:30.  After going to bed at 11:00.  Being jet lagged so I couldn't sleep.   Plus we had noisy neighbors.  It was not a great combination.  So I was tired off the bat and really never recovered.

Then we tried to go to the train station to find the free shuttle the the Games - you'd think that'd be easy, no?  A HUGE event with thousands of people, but we still walked around the train station for 20 minutes before realizing the station was right under our noses.  We GOT to the shuttle at 7:45-8:00 - not ideal but the person we wanted to see first didn't go until 9:55.  But then we waited.  And waited.  Made friends with some Australians.  Waited some more.  Finally at 8:45 a bus finally came, but the 10-15 minute ride took so long, we didn't get to our seats until 9:15 or so (Mother was not a happy camper).  From there it was good.  It didn't rain much, a woman we know from MacNairs was there so we had a friend all day, and the dressage was mostly good.  Its funny that even at this level of competition, there are they superstars, the average people, and then some people who you wonder if they are really one of the best riders in their country.  I like dressage, but I'm glad that today (Wednesday) we will only be watching the top 30 (they cut 70).

I've been feeling a little weird since I arrived here.  Caen is nice enough, but really lacks the charm that so many French cities have, because it was so badly bombed in WW2.  The Games themselves are not what they've been in the past either.  You can't watch the warmups, schooling, people grazing, or look at the barns.  You are just stuck in a stadium all day.  Even the Games Village which has all the shopping on off site near the reining, para-dressage, and driving (aka everything we DON'T have tickets to), so you literally have nothing to do if you need a break or to stretch your legs.  The food in the stadium sucks, which to me, is a real shame because there are some people who - that stadium food will be a majority of what they eat while at the Games and they won't experience the amazing food that France has to offer.  The days are longer than I thought they would be, from 6:00-6:00 because you have to include travel time, and then that doesn't give you much time to relax before you have to go eat for 2 hours at 8:00.

I'm writing this Wednesday AM - I got more sleep last night (6 hours!) so here's to hoping today is a little better than yesterday.


See some of my favorites from today:

Laura Graves (USA) - Verdades

Kristy Oatley (Australia) - Ronan 2 

Patrik Kittel (Sweden) - Watermill Scandic

Helen Langehanenberg (Germany) - Damon Hill NRW

Adeline Cornelisson (Holland) - Jerich Parzival N.O.P.

Steffen Peters (USA) - Legolas 92

next 3 photos Charlotte Dujardin!!  (Great Britain) - Valegro

Blueberry is very pleased with himself

Inessa Merkulova (Russia) - Mister X in the pouring rain