March 23, 2014

Carolina International CIC*** & HT: More Awesomeness Than Blogger Can Hold

Trademark CHP stands rise behind CIC*** #16
Should I just put all the adjectives up front?  Amazing fabulous wonderful gorgeous jaw-dropping beautiful incredible inspiring even-greater-than-expected phenomenal wow breathtaking...I'm sure I could keep going but my brain is still tired and stunned!  If you followed the sporadic outbursts of our Twitter/FB live posting (thanks again, Erica, for putting the pics up, my phone can't do that), I hope I succeeded in my goal of annoying the crap out of at least one person all day.  If not, hey, it's still up there, if your boredom is so deep that you'd like to pretend I'm babbling in your ear from 6 am to 10 pm.

While a full report on many fronts will come once I can put it together (as my blogger buddies know, putting together a meaningful post takes HOURS - or maybe that's just me...), there are few things I have to blurt out share while they are still a fresh grin in my mind.  I had a great time seeing familiar friendly faces and catching up with so many Adult Rider, volunteer/staff, & other eventing peeps, so:  Hai, it was wonderful to see you, Pat, Cindy, Foy, JJ, Dana, Sue, Bill, Jennifer, Nobie, Becky, Jen, Alison, Adrian, Alexis (heee, I love that your family is AAA), Jeff, Ross (ok, I never could catch you to say, but I did mentally when I saw you at dinner, LOL), Sarah Beth (I didn't get to talk to you, but saw you gallop by and I hope you are all dried off and ok!), Gracie, Suzanne, and Steve!!!  I'm sure I forgot someone, mea culpa.

Will Faudree & Land des Feuers open CIC*
Thank you SO MUCH, Erica, for driving down and back and being a great friend and volunteer buddy, and BFF, for being able to join and and I am so glad you had fun, I absolutely love watching people discover the sheer awe and wonder of sitting 20 feet from a **** horse as he navigates an eyeball-bugging complex like it was a set of ground poles.

Things I Learned and Awesome New People
(just get used to the word awesome a lot, despite my hatred of repeated words in writing)

Kelli Temple is not only super cool and friendly, but more fun than a crate of bouncy balls.  She joined the TFS Trio Dinner Table Of Poor Peons with two of her working students (who, geez the horse world is small, I have both watched and cheered for as they navigated our beloved Waredaca T3DE).  Upon seeing the eight empty champagne flutes set up with the centerpiece (they go big or go home in SoPines), Kelli immediately popped up, ran to the bar, and returned with...an entire bottle, as a true eventer should!  She promptly made sure all eight glasses were full (for the six of us, of course) and everyone was set for beer and wine.  I love her.

Hugh Lochore is indeed a world-class, bar-none course designer.  I confess my head exploded when we arrived at our post for the CIC*** division and the first thing I saw was this...thing:

Erica is not that much shorter than my 5'9"
But Hugh is truly in that excruciatingly small class of designers that can make this a "simple" rider accuracy question among a beautiful and deceptively challenging course, yet ensure that any equine or human mistakes are only penalized by a refusal, runout, or in a few cases, rider falls.  But NO rotations, NO equine ambulances, & with the exception of one unfortunately extremely hard encounter with the sand after a loss of balance, no lasting rider injuries.
 
Really want to ride one of his courses now!
Oh, and he is charming, hot, hilarious, adorable, generous, friendly, down-to-earth, attentive, AND straight (which is why on Facebook, I have named him "The British Unicorn") -- I would like to hate his wife, but I am told she is beautiful and friendly and kind, as well.  I hope he...snores really loudly or something.  ;P  I love him.

Dom Schramm is just as easy to talk to as he seems; I had to stop him at dinner and thank him for providing me with entertainment, although I had to admit that I had not yet seen "How Horses Eat Their Food, Part Deux," to which he replied, "WHAT??!!  What else could you possibly be doing?!"  He did concede that my employer expecting me to do actual work at work was an acceptable excuse.  I love him.

The no-one-else-even-came-close-I-don't-care-how-famous-your-name-is, best ride of the day through our insane complex was Caroline Martin and Quantum Solace (she is 18, geez).  She lined up all three jumps (17-18a-b) on the foot-perfect approach and as soon as her horse took off, her body never budged from its impecabbly soft, balanced center and I didn't even see a rein move as her Argentine sporthorse gelding floated through like hunter, responding instantly to the turn of her head and lightning-fast eye.  Incredible.  The only other pair that came close, and were also just exquisite to watch, were Rachel Jurgens and Ziggy (he is an OTTB the same age as Caroline Martin, LOL, and ran Rolex last year!).  Starting 3 strides out from 17, she looped both reins of her Pelham and floated her hand in immovable softness, anchored in an incredbly strong leg and core, all the way through without so much as a twitch.  I love them.

Buck and The Apprentice are 1st to leap #17
Buck Davidson really is an incredibly gracious, generous, and kind person.  And I almost didn't recognize him at the volunteer briefing Saturday morning; he and Caroline came to say thank you to everyone before riding (awesomeness), he has lost a bunch of weight and was looking very stylish indeed (hanging out with Faudree??)!  But not only did he make that special effort, as he walked our complex for the second time (he overshot the line with his first ride, The Apprentice, although that veteran horse still made it look easy, so came back out to make a better plan), he made conversation with BFF and I.  Laughing after I noted he had, what, ten more tries to get it right, Buck again thanked us so sincerely for being there.  Classy.  Dude.  I love him.

Both Arthur and Manoir de Carneville (Tate) are even more incredible in the flesh than they look in photos and video.  Arthur in particular is stunningly gorgeous and Allison rode him superbly; both hers and Sinead's special partnership with their horses was more than evident!  I love them.

David O'Connor really does cry at every milestone/pep talk/special occasion.  Upon introducing the 1984 gold-medal-winning Olympic team of J. Michael Plumb, Jimmy Wofford, Bruce Davidson, Torrance Watkins (who competed two horses at T this weekend!), and Karen Stives (the first time all five were together in 40 years, wow), he choked up into tears at the end.  I had to giggle a little, knowing how hardcore and stoic Karen is, wondering how often she rolls her eyes and throws a box of kleenex at him, hee.  I love his adorableness.

Sinead Halpin and Tate: so in tune
There are more, but a certain blogger is running out of steam.  But I cannot close the post without one more thing:

THANK YOU to the Carolina Horse Park, Jane Murray, Bobby Costello and the organizing committee, Hugh Lochore, Tyson Rementer (Stonehenge?!  Seriously?!), Roger Haller (FEI TD & best XC judge briefing I've ever heard) and all of the TDs, our fabulous friend, Foy Barksdale for being secretary bar none,  JJ Johnson for always being the best XC control ever, all of the sponsors, all of the volunteers, and especially Pat Gibson for all of her cat herding as volunteer coordinator:  you all brought to life a top class event with so many wonderful, special touches that made it truly unique in all my years of attending and working events.  I love all the peoples.  Combining the generous hospitality of Southern Pines with the open, welcome, positive, and fun atmosphere that eventers never fail to create, resulted in a feeling that I was a part of something great, even as a nobody smurf.

As we wound down the night and headed home, endurance racing BFF remarked, "If this is part of your evil plan to convert me to eventing, it's working."  (*gasp* Evil?!  Sounds like a great plan to me!)

Stay the bomb and gallop on, all my fellows in the eventing community!  You truly do rock, indeed.   

12 comments:

  1. I'm 5'6" for those keeping score. :) Thanks are also due to Boyd who, for those who didn't see the note yesterday, dashed to my fence to put the left flag back up when Buck's mare took it out. Because I was NOT about to get in the way of his 2nd attempt. Bonus points also to Michael Pollard who was gimping hard after his unplanned dismount at our fence with Mensa, but was still first to the dance floor with his little girl that night.

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  2. What a wonderful post. Everyone who has never volunteered should read this and then go volunteer at a local event! :)

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  3. Ok, we get it--you know EVERYONE in the eventing world! ;-D
    Lolz (I really could not resist)! Glad you had such a fabulous time and got to see so much great riding.
    I am in love with Tate and was so disappointed he wasn't at RH!

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  4. P.S. Did you see that Boyd broke his leg today?

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  5. Oh no!! Sorry, Frizz that was absolutely not my intention at all - what I do want to share is that there are so unbelievably many wonderful people in eventing world and by volunteering, you get to spend time with them and learn from them. My effort is to raise awareness that even us smurfies DO matter and ARE appreciated to many, and to encourage others to step in and discover that it's not just "working" but an unparalleled learning opportunity.

    I did read about Boyd and was so sorry to hear that - as if the Martins need another hit! You did the right thing, Erica, by staying out of the way. I understand why Boyd jumped in there since it was a narrow corner and he wanted to help Buck out, and that is fine. But you made the right decision as a judge that, as long as there are no safety hazards, you don't risk yourself over a flag until the effort is complete. Good on you and I hope you know I was just teasing you!!

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    1. I was totally teasing! ;-)
      I'm pretty much never serious, actually, just FYI.
      Genuinely happy for you that you got to be a cog in the machinery of the CI--I can tell you had a great, thrilling time and that is AWESOME!
      Plus, since I "know" you, that puts me @ 1 degree of separation from like a bajillionty eventing Olympians. Win!!

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  6. What a wonderful opportunity to be involved. :-) It sounds like a ton of fun.

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  7. Ugh! I wanted to be there so badly- volunteering would have been great! But alas, the husband said we must go see his grandparents- didn't they know there was a 3* going on?! Next year, I hope to be there! Volunteering hopefully, watching if not ;)

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  8. Grandparents!!!! Where are the priorities here! Just bring them along!

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  9. I'm with Frizz, I am enjoying living vicariously through you! I have SEEN lots of these people in action now courtesy of attending WEG and Rolex, but never talked to anyone except Peter Atkins (also super-cute, straight and married). I was about 5' away from David O. at WEG and got to see him sniffle a bit while posing with his Canadian second-place team winners. I saw Bruce Davidson leaning up against a tree waiting for Buck to come through Head of the Lake and snapped a clandestine photo, but as no one else was talking to him I certainly didn't.

    Quite enjoyed your enthusiastic report and looking forward to more. Is that first photo of the corner where Boyd was taken out? I can certainly understand why if so! Eek!

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  10. Seems like a fun event! Your post made me feel like I was there! :)

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