Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Saturday, September 30, 2006 - Saturday Night with Anky

Missy had asked me to come down to breakfast at seven, to leave at 7:15. I was down at the restaurant at the right time, but I was alone. I ate. Laura came down to join me, but there was yet no sign of Missy. Laura called her. She had not awoken, and she was glad for the call. She came groggily down at 7:30.

We headed to the barn, and got the horses fed. I let Rocky have half of his breakfast; I would ride first. Laura worked on my back some before I rode, and that helped release my tight muscles.

I got on Rocky around 9:15, and took him to the outdoor warm-up. There were no outdoor competitions today, so this warm-up was free. Right now, it was not crowded, a pleasant change.

I started with walk pirouettes. Two of the judges yesterday had said that Rocky was lateral in the pirouettes, which I thought strange. Missy joined me in the ring, and she suggested that I spend time today working on suppleness and looseness. I picked up trot, and rode long lines of leg yield, exaggerating the bend and keeping Rocky’s neck low and deep. It was not my favorite position to ride him in, because his trot got too gangly for me to sit well.

Rocky felt good. I felt discouraged with my score and placing from yesterday; I had finally discovered that I had gotten only 63.09%. That would not be so disappointing if I thought I had a bad ride, but I didn’t feel that way.

I rode shoulder-in to half pass, in a zig-zag line on each diagonal. Rocky felt soft and loose. I rode many repetitions. Rocky was good. I did some medium trots, on the circle and on long lines, then let him rest. I did not know what else to do for improvement, and Missy didn’t either.

I rode my walk pirouettes again; they were in order, with no lateral steps. I went into canter, and rode shoulder-in to half pass again, with Rocky’s neck low and soft. Missy said that his changes were not all clean, and so I went on to practice changes on the circle and on long lines. I had to override the changes to the left. Missy had me ride working pirouettes, to get Rocky more active and balanced. I let Rocky rest. Missy and I were both satisfied with how he was going.

I took him for a long walk around the paddocks. There really wasn’t very much of a long walk available; we had to go around and around. I took him back inside and got him washed off. Barb and Becca and the Grassmyers had arrived now. We began to get their horses ready. I braided their forelocks, while Missy and Laura did their manes. We still had plenty of time. Barb was riding at one, first of the Grade III riders, and Becca was at 1:32.

Bob was doing better today. Whatever the pills were that he had gotten yesterday were certainly helping him. He was still lame, but his face had normal color and he was much perkier.

I went to meet Hope for lunch in the café. She told me, a little bit late in the game, that I could get a sandwich much more quickly than if I tried to wait for service from the two overworked waitresses. I did that; it was a much more satisfactory solution.

I watched the awards for Grade I. Six riders from Grade Ia and Ib had gone on to this final. Lee Pearson had won his division, Ib, again, with 81%. I had seen his ride; he made everything look easy and fluent. I had my video camera at hand. I stayed to watch the Grade III class; I saw all of the rides. Barb was first, and she put in a wonderful ride. I had not seen Mibis go this well. The flying changes were easy and clean, and Barb produced a steady, active ride. The judges rewarded her with 69%. She stayed in the lead until Becca’s go. Pippin took exception to the speakers stationed at nearly every letter, but after the first round he decided that they were not going to eat him, and he was more relaxed. It was a good ride, too.

Denise came and went from my table. She got scores as they were available. I still did not know where they were available; they were not posted anywhere. Denise had to find a computer screen in the secretary’s office (we riders were excluded from the office; only chefs were allowed inside), and she said that the screen switched from one grade to another at some random rate, and the scores were in a 5 font, making them difficult to read even if it was the right screen. At any rate, now Becca was in the lead, with 71%.

There were eleven riders in this final. There had been twelve qualified, but one had scratched. The class continued. There were more good rides toward the end of the class. The British rider, Simon Laurens, put in a lovely go. Hannelore Brenner had a great ride. She was actually a Grade II rider, but she chose to challenge to Grade III. She had to declare at the beginning of the year which Grade she was going to compete, and she chose Grade III. A rider could challenge to a higher Grade, but not lower. In the end, Becca was fourth, and Barb was seventh. It was a great finish for our two Grade III riders.

Denise had arranged for Becca to go back to Classification. Becca had not been evaluated since 2000, and Denise thought that she might actually classify as a Grade II rider. All riders were classified according to disability, rather than skill. Becca’s familial spastic paraplegia affected both legs and her trunk as well; she had always competed as a Grade III rider. Denise had a long talk with Becca about the implications of this. Like Hannelore, she could continue to ride at Grade III. Pippin would not do nearly as well at Grade II, which was only walk-trot. That was why Hannelore did not want to stay at Grade II. The advantage of having Becca classified as Grade II was that in order to field a Team at an international competition, we needed at least one Grade I or II rider. Right now, we were thin on riders at these grades. We did not have a Team at this show; we did not have the requisite Grade I or II rider. Our Grade I riders, Lynn Seidemann and Keith Newerla, were both out for the time being, because they did not have horses to compete on. Both had bought horses but they had not yet worked for competition. If Becca were a Grade II rider, we would have a safety net to allow us to field a Team if we did not have another Grade I or II rider who could participate and do well. The downside was that Becca would need another horse to supplement Pippin.

The awards ceremony for the Grade III freestyle was rather more satisfactory than yesterday’s. The riders were mounted, and there was more of a victory gallop this time. It was a victory trot, but at least there was some adrenaline rush to be had.

After the horses were put back, we headed to the hotel to change and get cleaned up. We returned to the venue in the evening. There was a big party and entertainment. As we left the cars, Tine (whose last name I could not remember) came up to me; she was one of my riders from the clinics I teach in Holland. I was going back there later in October for another clinic. Tine’s daughter was part of tonight’s entertainment, as part of the vaulting exhibition. Tine wanted to see Rocky, so I took her back to the barn and introduced her. Tine’s horse was a small gray baroque horse, quite different to Rocky’s lanky body.

We went in toward the bar area. Tine rejoined her family, and I tried to find my teammates. It took far too long to find the group. At last we found each other. Most of the tables were already full. We joined our Finnish neighbors, who had a good table right behind C.

There was red wine at the table. The two waitresses, who now had over three hundred people to serve, came around once in a while with tiny bites of pastry. Becca and Barb had not eaten lunch, and they were starving; the rest of us were ready to eat, too. It was 7:30 already.

The entertainment began. A woman came out on a dark Baroque horse, with her hair streaming back to complement her horse’s flowing mane and tail. The horse produced a circusy display of rearing and Spanish walk; the horse did some “dressage” movements that were crooked and tense.

This was followed by a Spanish horse, who was more interesting. Next was a miniature horse, who did very good tricks. He reared, caprioled, bowed, sat down, got up on a pedestal to shake hands, and was generally fun to watch. We had nothing to eat yet. The sponsors’ tables, right under our noses, wafted up delicious scents, but we had nothing. It was after nine now. At last, we saw dishes of food coming into our room. The waitresses carried two plates at a time, for the three hundred of us in this room. It was going to take a long time.

The big draw of the evening was Anky van Grunsven. She came in on Kraak C, dressed in casual clothes. Anky had a microphone on, and she talked us through a training session. She extolled the virtues of Rollkur, and displayed how she used it with her horse. The horse was a lovely creature, and he was certainly supple and loose and full of brio. I was disappointed, though, since Anky’s presentation had been billed as a freestyle.

As promised, Anky did do her freestyle. It was not her WEG freestyle, but it was great to see her with this horse as well. Denise and I were ready to leave after Anky’s freestyle. The others were still willing to wait for their dessert. Denise and I headed back to the hotel; it was well after ten. rfahea

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