I have just returned home from WEG and am currently recovering from a little op. I had to put off until after the big event!
WEG was excellent, it took a bit of doing to get everything ready and to get out there and back but the silver medal made it all worthwhile! Just after having been at the Nationals with 9 horses I had 2 days to get the lorry unpacked, the gear cleaned and re-pack for WEG. I travelled with Ed (Two Sox) to Liege where the horses were due to fly from, we stopped 1 night at Nadine Cappellmans so the horses had a chance to have a leg stretch and rest before the flight. There were 80 horses who were flying from Liege so as you can imagine the airport was rather busy- we had to be super organized and have everything ready separately for what was going to be needed for the flight, quarantine and the venue itself. Once we had seen them off I came back home to England to do a quick pack of my things before having to depart from Heathrow the next morning. Although I couldn’t travel with Ed we had Jenny Hall, our vet, and Carole Levitt, Laura Bechtolsheimer’s groom, travel with them and then John McEwen, our team vet, was to join them in quarantine so they were to be well looked after!
It was a long journey for us, we caught the plane from Heathrow at 8am and at Chicago we had to do a transfer to Lexington-there was also a 5 hour time difference! Outside of the airport there was so much space and acres of grassland all fenced in white post and rail, takeaway venues everywhere! We arrived mid afternoon so enough time to get to the stables and meet our neddies for a quick leg stretch. Unfortunately Ed wasn’t looking his usual self when I arrived at the stables he had had a slight temperature in quarantine. I just walked him for a few days until his temperature and bloods were back to normal, and with having arrived with a week before the competition was due to start I had just enough time to get him into gear. With having to take it easy for the first few days I had plenty of time to explore the showground which was massive. It was a 15 minute walk to get to the stables from the shuttle stop, another 15 minutes to get to the catering from the stables, 20 minutes to get from the stables to the main arena and 40 minutes to get from the main arena to the grooms accommodation. We also had a group visit to the Keenlands racing stables and venue followed by a quick tour around Sheik Mohammed’s stables before the competition got under way which was a new experience. At the time they were having their annual sales, selling hundreds of youngsters a day!
It was quite tricky to work Ed enough that he was submissive and well behaved but not to exhaust him and put his body under strain with having been travel sick. John did a great job with monitoring him and Vicky Spalding the team physio worked on him as well so that I didn’t have to do that much and that when I rode him I took lots of breaks. He did a very good consistent Grand Prix, I was really pleased. The rest of the team did really good tests as well and with Laura s mega score we ended up in Silver position not far away from the Dutch! We had got bronze in our sights but thought that the Germans were looking fairly strong again this year. Of course we had to celebrate but not too much as we had all qualified for the Special and with it being drawn in reverse order of results from the Grand Prix I was due to go fairly early, actually it was nice as the weather was turning hot again (it had been a sweltering 98F when we arrived, which suddenly plummeted to 56F for a few days and raining before turning hot again but this time pleasantly in the seventies. With the team result having been decided we could all up the risk factor a little bit more. Ed was great once again with no mistakes and I thought that he was altogether looser and fresher-the following day when I thought he would have been tired he was the freshest he had been all week, not tired one little bit which was great seeing as he had not been up to full strength when he arrived. It also was good from the point of view that the return journey was coming up and I wanted him to be fighting fit before having to have to travel home. The last few combinations in the Special and Freestyle were amazing, so much so that you felt that there should have been 5 medals made available.
Before returning back to the UK I did a quick dash around the trade stands to get myself a cowboy hat and a bling belt, a must if you go to the States! The journey home was overnight and I am still trying to recover from the jet lag, I didn’t think I would get it on the way home but it has hit me good and proper! Ed travelled home really well-the horses had quite a long trek back again but had plenty of stops to break the journey up and have opportunity to eat, drink and rest. I think he is tired but no travel sickness which was a relief and he is happy and well having a well deserved break. A short break for me as I am unable to ride for a moment but loads to do on the admin side- and some planning necessary as to what happens next!
Maria x
