Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Thursday, September 28, 2006 - Show Time

Missy had called at nine last night, to tell me that she thought I was riding around eleven. She did not have an actual time, since the schedule had not been completed yet. I thought that odd.

It meant that Barb, Bob, Nora and I were going to the barn together at 7:30, with the others leaving earlier. So it happened.

It did not look much like there was going to be a four-star competition here in half an hour. There were no announcements, and nothing was posted anywhere. The office was locked. There were no programs, or orders of go.

It took a long time to get any information at all.

Becca was our first rider; she was going at 9:47. We still did not have real times for either Barb or myself. After an hour or so Denise was able to procure our times; Barb was to go at 10:08, and I was at 11:17.

We got the three horses braided. I ended up doing all the forelocks, since I knew how to do reverse French braids. Mibis got a tail wig to supplement her chestnut locks. Denise was in charge of putting that on. I had no experience with wigs.

I wanted to videotape everyone’s rides, and I asked Bob to tape mine. I went up into the stands to watch other horses until it was Becca’s turn. I saw the Finnish rider who was stabled next to us; she did not have such good luck. There was no information given on any rider over a loudspeaker system, nor were ride numbers posted. It seemed odd, too. There were five judges for this CPEDI****, including Anita Owen as the sole US judge. She was in the indoor, judging the Grade III riders this morning. The Grade IV riders were outside today. The Grade I and II riders were in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, all these would swap places and times.

Our stable area was hectic with controlled activity, to get the three horses and riders ready within an hour or so of each other. Becca took Pippin into the small indoor, which was the warm-up for Grade III today; it was crowded.

I could only imagine trying to dodge all the other riders in this small space.

I headed up to the grandstand to watch other riders while I waited for Barb and Becca. I saw some stunningly lovely rides, as well as some quite ordinary rides. The good riders, from Germany and Great Britain and Australia and Sweden, were very good. Because this was one of only a few competitions where riders could get qualifying scores for Hong Kong, many more countries sent riders than normal. A qualifying score was 60% in either the Team or Individual test, at a CPEDI*** or CPEDI****. Right now, the only shows that had these stars were Vancouver, this show, and next year’s World Championships in Hartpury, England, in July.

Becca’s turn came. Pippin looked fantastic. Becca had him in his snaffle bridle today, which he far preferred. In Grade III and IV, it is optional to use either bridle. A Grade I or II rider had to apply for special permission to use a double bridle, and this was uncommon.

Becca took Pippin around the ring. He was not concerned with anything in the ring. The judge rang her bell, and Becca went in. She put in a forward, active test, with a few minor bobbles. The trot work was particularly good, with very nice medium trots. Pippin got a little heavy in the canter, and he was tense in one part of the walk, but otherwise it was a commendable test.

Becca was not happy, though, and she left the ring in a dark cloud. I had to go back into the stable area to get Barb’s video set up, and Becca was clearly upset with her ride. I told her how good it looked, but she was not willing to hear it.

I went back to the grandstand. There were only two horses between Becca and Barb. This ring was running a little behind schedule, which was not too surprising since there did not seem to be any evidence of radios between stewards. Barb came in. Mibis looked good. She was active and forward.

Barb began her test. It was not as smooth as Becca’s, with some unsteadiness and minor bobbles. Barb was pleased, though.

We all went back to the barn. I began to get Rocky saddled. He was already clean. I took his tail wrap off and got him tacked up. I let Laura walk him while I finished getting dressed. It was cool enough to warm up with my jacket on, a small blessing.

I got on Rocky and took him to the designated outdoor arena for Grade IV warm-up. Missy did not realize that I was outside; she had gone to the indoor to find me. She did find me outside. I had already done some trot work; Rocky felt good. He was uphill and active. Missy reminded me about bend and forwardness, but she seemed pleased with how he was going. There was a German rider in here with me, and I could hear her coach giving her directives. I listened to the German and took them to heart too, to supplement Missy’s comments.

I rode the walk pirouettes. They were better today. I went on with the canter work. This was not as well-balanced today, and I had to remind Rocky about being uphill and active. I could tell that I needed to be particularly attentive in the canter work today.

I was ready to go. The steward would not let me go down to the competition ring until five minutes before my time. Denise radioed to Missy that the ring was empty, but the steward was adamant, in French-accented English, that I must stay here.

I could stand it no longer. I did not want to be late and forfeit my time.

I headed off to the ring, which was indeed unoccupied.

I gave my number to all five judges, and the C judge rang her bell for me promptly. I entered the ring to ride my Team test, Grade IV Test 52, which was fairly simple. The trot work went well. Rocky was obedient and steady, and active in the medium trots. I knew that the walk was good. I could hear the E judge whispering 7 and 8 for the medium walk and the first pirouette. I was happy to hear that.

The canter went well, rather better than it might have. Rocky’s medium canter on a circle was as good as I could make it. He began to get behind my leg on the short side, and he managed to break for a few strides. I put him back into canter and continued on, paying yet more attention to his balance.

Rocky anticipated the final halt, and it made our center line less fluent than I had planned. The halt itself was good, though, and I was pleased with my horse, and pleased with this test. I had laid down a good start to the weekend.

It was a while before Missy came back to the barn. Becca was still upset with her ride. Denise discovered that Becca had a 67%, and Barb a 64.9%.

Eventually she found out that I had a 64.929%, which currently put me in sixth place. There were going to be awards to eighth today.

Becca ended up sixth in Grade III, with Barb just out of the ribbons at ninth. I ended up eleventh, halfway through the pack of Grade IV’s. That was not what I expected; I had expected to do much better than that. I watched the video, and then I saw why my placing was so low. Rocky had felt better than it looked; he was not steady to the contact, and he still needed to be more uphill and active. I would have to ride more effectively tomorrow and Saturday.

The awards ceremony for Grade III was in the indoor at 12:30. It was unmounted. We got the three horses unbraided and cleaned and put away their tack, and then went to the indoor for the awards. My class was still not finalized, but I had not placed.

It was a very disorganized awards ceremony. They had put out eight chairs in the arena, but one rider was in a wheelchair. The riders did musical chairs while that was sorted out. Each rider sat in a chair, and the presenter called out, without benefit of a microphone, the result and score.

It was odd, and hard to follow.

We were to get lunch in the bar. We went to a table, but after half an hour of never seeing a waitress, Denise, Laura, and I got up to leave. Denise and Laura were going back to Brugge, and I wanted to go back to the hotel for a few hours. We had a riders’ meeting at six at the venue. The others were going to stay and watch the Grade I and II riders. Becca wanted to plan her strategy for tomorrow. Missy was going to Holland to look at horses for Keith Newerla, who was in need of a new competition horses.

Paddy, whom he had ridden in Vancouver and at Morven Park, was not his, and he was also 22 years old.

I had a good rest at the hotel. Denise and Laura picked me up again at five, and we returned to the venue. There was a riders’ meeting at six, in the bar area, and all three of us riders attended. Hope Hand, a former US rider who was now on the FEI PE committee, was there as well. The meeting was run by Angelika Trabert, a Grade II rider from Germany. She was our Athlete Representative to the FEI PE committee.

There were several hot topics to discuss. The FEI committee had unanimously agreed to disallow double bridles for all Grade I and II riders. There had been a movement from these riders to allow it on a case-by-case basis, as a compensating aid. The tests for these grades are only walk-trot, and it seemed odd that a rider would require a double bridle for this work. There was vehement opposition to this decision, and another group of riders were highly in favor of allowing all riders the option of using a double bridle.

This heated discussion was so very similar to the ones we had over and over again in US judges’ forums!

Jonquil Solt, the head of the FEI PE committee, said that the committee had now reversed itself, and would allow the use of the double bridle, letting the judges make the determination of whether its use was appropriate. That decision was met with mixed responses in this meeting. I was privately against it, but I did not voice my opinion.

There was also discussion of revising the tests. These tests had been in use since 2000, and none of them flowed well. Apparently we were not going to get new ones until after Hong Kong in 2008, though. Jonquil requested riders to submit proposals for changes. The Germans had written their own tests, and they had offered them for the committee’s use, but so far the committee had not taken them up on the offer.

There was also discussion of the rather controversial decision to split Grade I into two separate divisions, as had been done for the first time in Athens. The Grade Ia riders only walked; the Grade Ib riders rode walk-trot tests. The reasoning was that it was not fair to compare scores between such different tests.

Some Grade II riders wanted that grade split as well, into riders who could canter and those who could only trot. This became a skill determination, though, and the Grades were supposed to group riders according to disability, not ability or skill. Soon, it seemed, we would have as many Grades as riders! This became absurd… It was a long meeting, with no real resolutions. I was frustrated.

Denise had been at her chefs’ meeting. This had gone somewhat better than yesterday’s meeting for her. Denise, Laura, Becca, Barb and I headed back to the hotel. It had been a long day. I did finally get my test; I had placed thirteenth. I had not come here to be in the middle of the pack!

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