Horsesdaily 2007 Pan Am News: Guden's Corner

Notes from Rio - Training Moves into High Gear

Hi All,

Most important news - Melanie uploaded 317 (that's right) of Lauren's photos. Covers the actives from them arriving in Wellington through yesterday. I have added the link to the Hyperion Farm Pan Am page:

http://hyperionfarm.com/opt6-PanAm.asp

The competition is getting closer and with Klaus Balkenhol, the team coach, on site, the training moves into high gear. I wanted to give you all the competition format. I have worked with Gil Merrick to get the thing figured out, so here goes:

1. On Friday 7/13, the entire team [including the alternate, Susie Dutta] goes through the jog. That's where they check to make sure the horses are sound and ready for competition. After the jog, they will draw for the times that the team members will ride the PSG.

2. The Prix St Georges will be ridden over two days - Saturday and Sunday - and the scores from the three members of the team will be added to decide who will receive the team medals. There will be a gold, silver and bronze medal awarded.

3. On Monday, the competitors with the top 25 scores in the PSG will compete in the I-1. Tuesday will be a day off from the competition.

4. On Wednesday, the top 15 competitors from the I-1 will move forward to perform their I-1 Freestyle to music and the individual medal winners will be determined by the combined score from the I-1 and the I-1 Freestyle.

5. Olympic competition limits the number of competitors from one country who can go forward to the individual level but in these games all can move forward if they are in the top 25 and then the top 15.

As soon as we get the ride times on Friday, I will send you all an email. While we know ESPN Deportes will be broadcasting from the Games daily, they don't have any of the equestrian sports on their schedule. They plan to do short features but nothing we can plan on. I have a contact who I will continue to bug for a commitment or a heads up. Stay tuned.

Now for news from Rio:

1. Tuesday, 7/10 at 9:17 PM from Susie Dutta of Team USA

Ok!!! We just had a great team dinner with Klaus!!! Things are really taking shape now! Tomorrow we have ride times in the big stadium... It should be a great day. Our shopping adventure was successful!! Amazing, three women that agreed on the same shirt and scarf in less than 30mins. That is team work!!! Thank you Julie Mitchell for leading us to the right store!!! We will be in uniform for the jog!! I will talk to you in the am.....Susie

2. Tuesday, 7/10 at 9:56 PM from Lauren Sammis of Team USA

Klaus got here today and we went for a team dinner. Susie, Mel and I went to the beach today for a total of 20 min. We did manage to buy some things from the beach vendors. We are trying to collect memorabilia and traditional Brazilian pieces. Very fun.

As a group, we visited a local shopping area called Barra Shopping. People travel from all over to go to this one area. Kate, Susie and I bought shirts and scarves to wear for the jog. Some of the team have outfits specifically for the jog and it represents such a professional image. I think that we bought some nice things to represent the USA.

With Klaus here we will being having training session that will be very helpful. I think we are all in good shape.

3. Tuesday, 7/11 at 6:52 AM from Lauren Sammis of Team USA

Mel is working on it [getting photos uploaded] today. Her cable does not work with our camera. But it will work today.

4. Tuesday, 7/11 at 7:57 AM from Melanie Summers with Team USA

Your going to be really excited. I was able to upload all of Lauren's photos to Snapfish. I will send you the link directly from Snapfish and you should be able to view the entire album which is over 300 photos. We will continue to update this to keep it up to date. You should also be able to save any of these photos individually to your computer if you want to put any of them on your website.

Please let me know if this works...Melanie

That's all for today,

Judy and Al Guden
http://www.hyperionfarm.com