PrintWhat a great event!.... Having never been to Richland Park in Michigan, I was really impressed with this event. It was horse, rider and spectator friendly. For an area which would not be seen as “horsey,” this event incorporated something for everyone, which could be noted by the number of locals who attended daily to watch.
The True Prospect team did the trip in 11 hours and all horses arrived safe and happy. With Kelley as my right-hand girl, we got the 12 horses settled in in a timely fashion.
Phillip wanted to do some work on Chip and Woodburn, and in the meantime I got our working student, Jackson, out hand-grazing the boys and girls whilst myself and Kelley worked on organizing for Wednesday. When 7 p.m. hit, we were all excited to take a shower and fall into bed.
I was fortunate enough to stay on grounds with friends, however we did not quite get the sleep needed due to the mosquito population. Lesson 1 learnt—don't leave windows open at night if you don't want to be the feeding ground for the mossies!!! Lesson 2... bring fly sheets and quadruple amount of fly spray for the ponies!!!
Wednesday was a low-key day with Phillip working the horses. I’m not sure why it seems to always happen to me, but five out of his seven horses had to compete on Thursday. It actually helps Phillip out a bit because he then has more time to walk his three courses on Friday. Oded Shimoni worked with the listed horses in the warm-up for dressage.
Chip has not run since Rolex and was a little childish in the warm-up. Oded was surprised to see this, but soon helped Phillip to work through the tantrum and Chip proceeded to produce a nice consistent test. Friday went smoothly with only one hiccup when Phillip started to ride the two-star test in the intermediate division. One mistake in seven rides is not too bad if you ask me!
Saturday saw an early start. The cross-country start was a bit of a walk from
the barns, so I was getting a good bit of exercise. The one downside to Phillip having multiple horses at events is that you don't get to see your boys run very often. Overall, the day went well, with only one stop in the 2*. Chip, Woodburn and Danny (Kheops du Quesnay) were excited and definitely needed the run in preparation for the WEG.
Saturday night went well with all the ponies jogging up fine, therefore we got to the competitors party in good time for some great local food—probably some of the best corn I have eaten!
Thankfully the officials had made the jog on Sunday morning semi-formal, so we didn’t need to worry about braiding and got a few extra minutes of shuteye.
The amazing Katie Prudent was there on Sunday to help warm up short-listed horses. The lessons learnt from Culpeper seemed to have been heeded and both Chip and Woodburn jumped out of their skins. We jogged horses for the selectors on Sunday night, then it was a mad dash to get 10 horses on the road for the trip home.
I stayed behind for full vet evaluations on Monday with Chip and Woodburn. I have to admit that some good margaritas and stories were shared at the local pub on Sunday night. After the vet evaluations, Boyd Martin and myself made the trip home together.
