Some pictures from WEG

Been trying to get back to blogging and I just can't fit it in most days.

Still in the middle of WEG here. I have enjoyed watching some of the venues. I caught some Dressage the other day and watched the cross country this weekend with spectacular horses and riders. But my biggest thrill so far has been watching the individual competition of Reining!

My work was nice enough to provide tickets to me for the individual finals last Thursday. I made the mad dash across the grounds to the indoor arena in record time!
I got to watch the entire competition and the house was packed! I had great seats
2nd row in fact! My fellow co worker from the IT department was there and had his camera, you guys can thank IAN for these wonderful pictures I am gonna share. Of course he did not snap to many as we were engrossed in watching the competition.
All four Americans qualified for the individual finals, they were later in the competition. The caliber of these horses was phenomenal I tell you, everyone was riding to win!

The first rider was Tim McQuay on a beautiful palamino and he took the lead with a 222 score. Here is a shot of him.
























We were ecstatic that USA had taken the lead but there were many runs yet to go.
next up was Craig Schmersal and he let it fly I tell you these guys held nothing back! Check out this slide!





















Next up was Tom McCutcheon another Texan for team USA. Right from his opening stop I could tell he was in it to win it. This horse was spot on folks. His stops were blazing and his fast circles were amazing, had me holding my breath. He rocked the house and finished with a 228! Here is his opening slide!


















We had one final rider to go and that was Shaun Flarida and his beautiful stallion.
Midway through his performance I could tell something happened. I saw Shaun reach out for his saddle horn to steady himself after the lead change. He finished his pattern but I could tell he was not asking the horse for much. We found out after his run that his stirrup leather had broke and he was riding with one stirrup. His score was a disappointing 207.5. He was favored to win and I really felt for him when this happened. I did not get any pictures of his run unfortunately.

So when the dust cleared and the scores were tallied, USA won gold and silver with Tom McCutcheon and Craig Schmersal! I stayed for the medal ceremonies and must tell you I was moved when they raised the flag and played our national anthem. A definite great day in my life!

I am going to try and watch some vaulting and combined driving this week and will of course keep you posted.

happy trails......

who is goin to WEG??

Anyone heading to the World Equestrian Games???

I am living it, have been for weeks now. Been meaning to do a snazzy post on it and all but alas......busy,busy,busy.

I work here in the horse park at the USEF. I have been watching the progress over the summer and slowly have been displaced out of my parking lot and now am hiking or taking a shuttle 2 miles to my car. I am affectionately calling it the Alltech weight loss program!

It really is a sight to behold. I could not have imagined all that has changed here at the park over the last few months. The opening ceremonies are tomorrow and so is reining. Unfortunately work calls and I am running a show office all weekend in Northern Indiana. I will be back Sunday night so should be able to catch some of the events next week. NO, I do not get free tickets or any other perks. I do get general admission with my work credentials but that is it.

Here are some sights from the park in case you can't make it.









this is how the tents started when they were constructing them.












Slowly things came together






























I promise I will be back next week with some more pictures of the athletes and horses and give you some updates from ground zero. If you are in town please look me up would love to meet fellow bloggers!


Happy trails....

show time again

Hi friends!

Sorry for the delay in posts again. Took myself a family cruise vacation. Met up with my husbands side of the family for a Caribbean cruise for 7 days. It was a good time but I was really missing Frank.

I feel like every time I get going and get in sync with riding again something comes along an derails me.......

I have been riding quite a bit this past week and up until last evening making good progress. But.....isn't there always a but, Frank decided last nite that he would go into his backing up mode and not practice side passing with me. The fights are definitely getting less and less and farther apart but man is it frustrating.
Jed helped me through the rough spot and we got back on track again.

I am showing this weekend in Bowling Green, Ky at a ranch horse show, hopefully we can put together some of the things we have been working at and have a good time.

I will leave you with a picture from last show for now.