Upper Marlboro, MD – September 27, 2003 – Every rider has shown in the rain one time or another and knows about soaked tack, muddy horses, and breeches you have to peel off your legs. It is all a part of the sport. But what happens when the rain comes prior to the show…in the form of a hurricane?

This year the Capital Challenge Horse Show, held at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, MD, faced what could have been a show-stopping situation when Mother Nature sent Isabelle to pound the Maryland coastline just nine days before the start of the show.

On September 18 when Isabelle hit, the tent crew normally would have had all of the tents erected. But as show manager Oliver Kennedy explained, “In preparation for the storm they laid all the tents down on the ground, anchored them in, and strapped them down. Tents 16, 17, and 18 were already up with stalls in them. They had to get the stalls out and take the tents back down. They also had to take all the electric out and all the stalls had to get dismantled. They stacked them all up and strapped them together because if you get 50 or 60 mph winds those panels will end up as giant Frisbees.”

Although the storm put the show staff behind a few days in set-up, it was the rainwater that wreaked the most havoc. Kennedy said, “It rained a lot the week before the show and then the hurricane dumped more water on the infield.”

The show grounds had also been used for a county fair in mid September, which left the infield chewed up and saturated. So by Sunday night, the 21st, when the crew would usually be hanging lights, the tents still weren’t in the air.

But on Monday morning when Assistant Manager Tim Hott walked in he didn’t panic. At that point he felt that grounds could dry out. He said, “It was wet when we got here but it was something we thought would dry. Then it rained on Monday night and that totally took that possibility out the window.” The rain that hit on Monday night was worse than what Isabelle dropped. The added three to four inches left the crew wondering how they were going to manage.

Hott said “When we walked in on Tuesday morning we didn’t know if that barn area was going to work for any horses. Some of the stalls you would wade in up to your knees. When we walked in we knew we were in a world of trouble.”

Kennedy added, “We wondered what we were going to do. Your first instinct is to panic, but that wasn’t going to help anything. So we got creative. No one had an easy day that day. The good part was that the show rings were in great shape. We just had to concentrate on the infield and the stable areas. In the condition it was in there was no way a tractor-trailer was going to pull in there let alone 1500 horses in and out of this place.”

Instead of giving up they started digging holes for the water to collect and pumped the water out with large sump pumps. Hott explained, “We spent 12 hours digging holes and moving hoses and pumps and getting water down to a point where we could take bobcats and skid loaders to pull away all the sloppy footing and hauled out to let the ground recover. We reused what was reusable of the footing and added on to it. It was a two-day, non-stop ordeal. It was a great group effort.”

After they finally pumped out most of the water they then scraped all the saturated footing off and hauled it off the grounds. Hott said, “There were about 48 dump truck loads that left this place. All the wet slop had to leave. It would have dried eventually, but not in the time we had.”

After scraping the soggy footing off they needed to get creative to clear the rest of the water. Hott said, “We went through three trial and errors until we found that semi truck tires, cut open and put in reverse and bolted on a blade actually formed a good water squeegee. It wouldn’t damage the footing but would scrape all the muck off.”

Finally seventeen guys with push brooms swept under each tent to get every last bit of water out before they built the stalls.

Kennedy spoke highly of all the people involved in making the horse show come together. He said, “The County really stepped up and did a monumental task between their staff, our staff, and the stall company’s staff to get this whole thing back together.

“It is a testament to the fact that we have all-stars on the crew. Everyone stepped up and proved to us how good they really are.”

The last step in the process was to rebuild the road to the infield. What started as a quagmire on Tuesday was a working road by Friday.

Kennedy said, “It was tough because we were trying to find equipment to rent and all the equipment is out cleaning up the entire state after Isabelle. So it was hard to find equipment or even get a crew together to build a road because all the county employees are out trying to get the electric and water turned on for people, and cleaning up the trees that came down, not to mention fixing up other county buildings.”

The process of getting the grounds in working order in three days was a tremendous task, and one that is easy to overlook as an exhibitor simply because no one knows how bad it could have been.

The Capital Challenge Horse Show runs from September 27 through October 5 and draws s the top hunter and jumper riders from across the country to compete at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center. Admission and seating is free throughout the week. The schedule, daily results, and photos can be found on the Capital Challenge website: www.capitalchallengehorseshow.com. For more information on the Capital Challenge Horse Show call (301) 260-2467 prior to the show or (301) 952-7944 during the show.