Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - The Jog

Becca was already at breakfast when I got down at 5:45. Laura joined us shortly. Missy came down, and we left for the barn a little after six.

It was dark and foggy. We were glad that we already knew the way to the venue. It would not have been a good day to find it.

It was still dark when we got the horses fed. I only gave Rocky a small portion; he ate the most of our three horses. I got him groomed and saddled, and took him into the indoor at 6:45.

There were lights overhead, but none of us could figure out how to turn them on. The only light was indirect, from the poorly-lit storage stall aisle.

It made Missy’s job harder, but I enjoyed riding in the dark.

I started with walk pirouettes, using Anne Gribbon’s exercise that I liked:

leg yield to half pass to walk pirouette. It helped get Rocky’s hindquarters organized, and his pirouettes were always good with this setup.

I went into trot, and began to ride toward our movement sequences. Rocky felt very good. Missy said that he looked better than yesterday, but she kept reminding me to keep the activity up, and to keep his poll up. She said that the medium trots were more even today, too.

I went back to walk pirouettes. They were not as good when I did them alone, and I had to keep remembering to keep control of Rocky’s left hind leg in the right pirouettes.

As I was walking, Nora noticed that there were times scheduled for each country to ride in one of the competition arenas. The US had 9:00-9:30 in the outdoor arena. Spain had 8:00 in the indoor, and Norway 8:30, but no one seemed to know this. Certainly we had not known this, and it was simple chance that we had discovered it now.

I went into canter, and rode sequences. Rocky was in better balance. He seemed to have plenty of energy. I did medium to collected transitions, and circles, and half pass; that was all Rocky had to do in his tests. I rode flying changes instead of simple changes. Missy was satisfied with Rocky today. She asked if I wanted to do anything else, but I was happy. Rocky would prefer a long walk, but the big gate to the outside was locked, and it was still dark and foggy.

I took Rocky back to the barn. I would get on him again to take him into the outdoor competition arena at nine, but for now I washed him off and put him back in his stall to finish his breakfast.

Becca rode with Missy in the small indoor. There was no one in the big indoor yet; neither Spain nor Norway had realized that their time had come and was nearly gone. I saw the end of Becca’s ride; her horse looked fantastic. The skylights had some sun now, and at least Missy could see her ride.

Barb was going to wait on her ride until our 9:00 time in the outdoor competition ring.

I went for a tour of the venue, to see what was done today. Now the outdoor ring had letters and plants and judges’ booths. The outdoor warm-up area had been divided into three parts; one part was half the original size, and the second half had been divided in half again. These two pieces were very small indeed.

I returned to the stables and got Rocky saddled. He looked askance at me; he had just done his bit for me. I got back on him apologetically. I had my MP-3 player to practice my new entry for the freestyle; I had not yet ridden it in a full-sized arena. I put that on.

I let Rocky walk around the outside of the ring. He was of course fine with it; it was not different from any other competition arena he had been in. I took him inside to start my music, and I rode the entry twice. I knew now where I needed to signal my music to start. That was the information I needed.

I began to ride through my two IPEC tests, starting with tomorrow’s Team test. I had not done a proper warm-up this time, so Rocky was not quite as elastic as he had been just an hour or so ago. The test went well. I continued on with the Individual test. This went well until the very last part, when Rocky blew through the canter-trot transition. I repeated this, and then that was enough. Missy had watched out of the corner of her eye, while she directed Barb and Becca, and she said that she was happy. We were ready to go.

Australia must be scheduled next in this outdoor arena; they were warming up on the outside of the barrier. I recognized Georgia, one of their Grade IV riders; we had shared a tack room in Holland in 2002. I said hi to her on my way back to the barn.

Rocky was officially done being ridden now. He was only a little sweaty, so I sponged off his girth and saddle area. I cleaned and polished my tack, including both his snaffle and double bridles. I would use the snaffle for the jog at three this afternoon.

I took a tour around the parking lot. I had seen some of the horses arriving yesterday. Ann Katrin Lubbe, a Swedish Grade IV rider, had a huge twelve-horse rig with her name on the side; she had a big sponsor. The British team, with funding from the British lottery, had two big vans to tote their ParaEquestrian riders and horses, and Christoph Hess as their main team coach, to supplement the four coaches who were here today. Their riders each received a $40,000 annual stipend and had their horses and training provided for them, for representing Great Britain in ParaEquestrian competitions. Another country was sponsored by Volvo. None of us US riders had sponsors; that was why I had to apply for grants to cover a show or two in the States. A sponsor who was willing to cover international competition expenses was a dream that had not yet come true for me!

The FEI vet came around to pick up our horses’ passports. Becca moaned, not for the first time, about Pippin’s passport. She had just gotten his passport recently, from the person she bought him from two years ago. On all his papers, his name was Nordcap (Noble Roi x Este (Einblick)). On his passport, he had an entirely new name, Norteassa. She did not have the money to change his name to Nordcap, so he was Norteassa for this competition. Mibis (Darwin x Iibis (Able Albert)) had a purple passport, unlike Rocky’s and Pippin’s red ones. The vet also took the travel documents, so that everything would be in order for their return flights.

It was still very foggy. I wanted to take pictures of the cows in the next field. Today they were near the parking lot, but it was too foggy to get good shots of them. These cows were like nothing I had seen outside Belgium. They were round, not square like normal cows. Their backs were humped. Their rear ends looked like Quarter horses. I had tried to get good pictures of these cows last time I was here, but I had not been successful. I was determined to get pictures of these cows this trip.

These cows seemed prevalent all over Belgium, and they appeared to come in different colors. The calves were round, the steers were round, the bulls were round, and the cows were round. Cows were not supposed to be round.

Cows were supposed to be square!

Denise was certain that we riders needed to go back to the hotel for a rest before the jog. She mandated that we go back. Bob and Nora took Barb, Becca and me back to the hotel, and we had lunch there. By the time we finished, we only had an hour to rest. We contemplated what Denise and Missy needed to collude about that required our absence.

We came back to the barn at 2:30. Missy was braiding Mibis, and Denise was doing Pippin. I began in on Rocky, which did not take long. I noticed that in my absence Rocky had been deprived of his whiskers. I never, in five years, trimmed his whiskers.

We put bridles on the horses when the jog started. The small indoor was crowded with people practicing for the jog, which was taking place in the indoor competition arena rather than outside on the macadam as it had been for Worlds in 2003. It seemed odd. We kept our horses right outside our stalls, on the driveway, and walked them around. And around. And around.

There were over a hundred horses to jog, and we were the last country to go.

The vets and judges seemed to take a long time to watch the horses.

It was interesting to see how various countries planned to present their horses. Some did not braid. Some had horses ready to present in double bridles, or snaffle bridles with flash nosebands. One rider presented her horse in a Pelham with the single rein on the snaffle part of the bit, but a curb chain.

We had plenty of time to kill. Three of the British riders played bumper cars with their electric wheelchairs. I said they were dangerous. One rider turned to me and said, “That’s why we’re in wheelchairs!” They kept at it.

It took close to three hours to get the hundred horses jogged. Our turn, last, was over quickly. The horses did not walk, they just jogged down the ring. Missy jogged all three; none of us could jog our own horses.

We took the horses back to the barn, and got Mibis and Rocky unbraided and fed. Becca wanted to ride Pippin in the indoor competition arena. She got him saddled, and got on him, but there was a big cherry picker putting up signs on the walls. The arena was going to be closed at eight, with no more entry to it allowed after that. Becca did not want to go in while the cherry picker was there, so she milled around on the driveway.

Denise had a chefs’ meeting at six. We still did not have programs, or meal tickets, nor did we know about when the draw for tomorrow’s ride times was going to be held.

Barb, Nora, and Bob Grassmyer, Hope Hand, and I went into the cafeteria for dinner. We had meal tickets, and Hope had two drinks tickets. The meal that the tickets bought was two hamburger patties and French fries. Hope did not want hamburger, but she was willing to share our French fries.

The hamburger tasted more like sausage. We suspected that it must have come from the pig-cows. It was more finely ground than our hamburger, and the spices were more like sausage.

Missy, Becca, and Laura joined us after a while. Denise was still in the chefs’ meeting, and we did not have our ride times yet. Missy said that she would call us when we got times, and at 7:30, the rest of us headed to the hotel.

It was a long trip. The rental car needed diesel, and it took three stops to find a gas station that took Bob’s credit card. By 8:30, we were in the hotel. I was exhausted.

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