After our daily training session Robin and I went over to the Kentucky Horse Park to watch the second day of the Grand Prix. Tomorrow we will meet with Dr. Stacey Kent, Missy Ransehousen and Sharon Schneidmann to discuss the schedule for the next few days. On Thursday we will hold a small “Mini WEG,” a prep show, which will be judged by Janet Foy.
On Friday we’ve been invited to a number of different gatherings. On Saturday the riders will move into the Hilton, while the grooms will move into the grooms’ village in preparation for the arrival of our horses at the Horse Park on Sunday.
The official jog will be held on Monday, and the first day of competition will be on Tuesday.
We arrived in time to notice a large crowd gathered around the warm-up ring. Everyone was waiting for Edward Gal and Totilas, including the German team trainer Holger Schmezer and Juergen Koschel, the former Spanish National Trainer and father of the German team rider Christoph Koschel. Juergen was taken pictures of Totilas—awestruck, just like the rest of us.
I have included a number of pictures of Totilas during his warm-up. It was impressive how steady and powerful this stallion is. The huge crowd exploded into applause when he entered the main ring.
I stayed behind because the horse following Totilas is a personal favorite of mine—the PRE Andalusian stallion Fuego. As the rider/trainer of a Grand Prix Andalusian, I have become a fan of this breed. For me, Fuego is truly special.
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Apparently the judges agreed, and he ranked amongst the top seven riders. He received a lot of applause, and while his rider waved to the crowd, he almost collided with Isabell Werth’s Warum Nicht who was about to enter the ring. Luckily both horses were OK, and Isabell Werth shook off the incident and put down another impressive ride.
Laura Bechtolsheimer’s ride on her humongous gelding was simply incredible—her parents appeared elated—Dad was raising both fists into the air when her score of over 82 percent was announced.
Last, but certainly not least was Steffen Peters, one of my idols. His warm-up was a pleasure to watch (he, along with Ashley Holzer, were wearing helmets), and Ravel seemed top fit. I ran up the stairs to join Robin in watching his test and saw that his 2008 Olympic team mate Courtney King-Dye and her mentor Lendon Gray had joined the U.S. Team in watching Steffen go. It is so great to see her out and about.
Steffen left “nothing in the barn,” so to speak. His trot half passes were awe-inspiring—the one to the right received a 10 from one of the judges. His final score was above 78 percent, but it was not quite enough to get the bronze. Still, he finished in third place, and will show again tomorrow in the Grand Prix Special.
Talk to you soon,
Elly
