WEG 2010 Cross Country Adventure
Oct. 4th, 2010 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spirithorse21Holy shit, I finally got it to work!
My adventure to WEG with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
windy_withers and punkerpony began at 4am Saturday morning when we all got up. We were on the road by 4:30 and were parked in the $20 lot at WEG by 7:45. It was a chilly morning, but not overly crowded yet. We strolled through the village, and then made our way toward the action.
Main arena and the KHP lake.
Bruce Davidson statue
Our first stop was the arena. We noticed horses warming up and thought we'd stop to watch. The rising sun shone brightly on the horses in the ring as they worked quietly. It was a brilliant, peaceful start to the morning.
Walking out to the XC course at about 9. We wanted to meander our way over to the start box, seeing some of the jumps as we went.
This would be the first rider of the day coming up to the start box.*
And this would be her start, kicking off the day and making a solid statement as she went double clear!
Japan on course next
Captured this by fluke, but it's one of my favorite. This is from team Belgium.
This would bewindy_withers and her cajones. For more on that, visit her blog. :)
First water element
Australian at the water
This would be Peter Atkins and Henry Jota Hampton from Australia. I had three lessons with Peter this summer at the eventing camp and I was totally hooked. He's pretty much what inspired me to go on this little adventure. Run Henny Run!
Cool Mountain, for those of you wondering. He was a very cool horse!
This is the sunken road. I can't remember which horse this is, but I wanted to comment that we did see Buck Davidson's horse refuse here. It was a shame, they were looking nice before that, but Buck just didn't ride him strong enough into the element.
The above series from the water was brought to you by lots of dedication and mud! As expected, the water jump was quite crowded. I really wanted a nice shot of that hard corner into the water, and I noticed a clear spot right in front of the jump if only I'd be willing to stand in the runoff water and mud. I hemmed and hawed a bit, but ultimately took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and stepped in...up to my knees! Totally worth it though. *grin* Bonus: it felt really good on my sore feet.
Truly, up to my knees!
Still at The Land Between the Lakes, this is a nice clear ride through the water.
This is a pair from the Republic of South Africa. They were struggling through the whole course. I imagine it was their first go at something of this caliber. They came down to this one very slow and you could tell the horse was saying, "Dude. No." from about three strides out. Rider almost came off, but managed to hold it together.
I think they exited the element nicely. True, they didn't make up the penalties, but the horse looked more sure of himself by the time they jumped out. And then they were only two fences from home!
This is Becky Holder and Courageous Comet. They came blazing down the hill only seconds after the RSA pair cleared the area. She pointed Comet at the straight route and they just ate it up. Very, very impressive!
Best shot of the day, I think.
These guys almost ate this jump. They came in kind of slow and tired, and DEEP. Horse knocked the jump hard, but they somehow pulled it together.
*It's late. I'm tired of messing with this. If you want to know who everyone is, look me up on Facebook. I actually got everyone's name, country and horse entered with the pictures over there.
My adventure to WEG with
windy_withers and punkerpony began at 4am Saturday morning when we all got up. We were on the road by 4:30 and were parked in the $20 lot at WEG by 7:45. It was a chilly morning, but not overly crowded yet. We strolled through the village, and then made our way toward the action.Main arena and the KHP lake.
Bruce Davidson statue
Our first stop was the arena. We noticed horses warming up and thought we'd stop to watch. The rising sun shone brightly on the horses in the ring as they worked quietly. It was a brilliant, peaceful start to the morning.
Walking out to the XC course at about 9. We wanted to meander our way over to the start box, seeing some of the jumps as we went.
This would be the first rider of the day coming up to the start box.*
And this would be her start, kicking off the day and making a solid statement as she went double clear!
Japan on course next
Captured this by fluke, but it's one of my favorite. This is from team Belgium.
This would be
windy_withers and her cajones. For more on that, visit her blog. :)
First water element
Australian at the water
This would be Peter Atkins and Henry Jota Hampton from Australia. I had three lessons with Peter this summer at the eventing camp and I was totally hooked. He's pretty much what inspired me to go on this little adventure. Run Henny Run!
Cool Mountain, for those of you wondering. He was a very cool horse!
This is the sunken road. I can't remember which horse this is, but I wanted to comment that we did see Buck Davidson's horse refuse here. It was a shame, they were looking nice before that, but Buck just didn't ride him strong enough into the element.
The above series from the water was brought to you by lots of dedication and mud! As expected, the water jump was quite crowded. I really wanted a nice shot of that hard corner into the water, and I noticed a clear spot right in front of the jump if only I'd be willing to stand in the runoff water and mud. I hemmed and hawed a bit, but ultimately took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and stepped in...up to my knees! Totally worth it though. *grin* Bonus: it felt really good on my sore feet.
Truly, up to my knees!
Still at The Land Between the Lakes, this is a nice clear ride through the water.
This is a pair from the Republic of South Africa. They were struggling through the whole course. I imagine it was their first go at something of this caliber. They came down to this one very slow and you could tell the horse was saying, "Dude. No." from about three strides out. Rider almost came off, but managed to hold it together.
I think they exited the element nicely. True, they didn't make up the penalties, but the horse looked more sure of himself by the time they jumped out. And then they were only two fences from home!
This is Becky Holder and Courageous Comet. They came blazing down the hill only seconds after the RSA pair cleared the area. She pointed Comet at the straight route and they just ate it up. Very, very impressive!
Best shot of the day, I think.
These guys almost ate this jump. They came in kind of slow and tired, and DEEP. Horse knocked the jump hard, but they somehow pulled it together.
*It's late. I'm tired of messing with this. If you want to know who everyone is, look me up on Facebook. I actually got everyone's name, country and horse entered with the pictures over there.
