Who waits until they’re in their 30s to learn how to properly drive a manual vehicle? And then does it on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road in a foreign country in their friend’s slightly “older” model vehicle (sorry Rebecca)?

And then proceeds to get the poor lightweight, low to the ground, two-wheel-drive car completely stuck and bottomed out following a week’s worth of rain on a muddy deeply rutted by-way (apparently that means “not a real road” in England) and has to get towed backwards by a four-wheeler and cut through a farmer’s barbed wire fence to escape through his fields?

This girl does. Greetings Europe, the American has arrived!

After a great run at Millbrook Horse Trials a few weeks ago, I was called up the following Monday to join Phillip Dutton and Lauren Kieffer on the U.S. team at the CIC*** Nations Cup in Aachen, Germany. We were originally told we would not be able to send a team, but got a very last-minute surprise. That meant I had to frantically pack up for a month abroad to do my final Burghley prep at Aachen and then be based in the United Kingdom until the beginning of September for the biggest, baddest four-star in the galaxy.

While I wasn’t truly planning my fall season with this Aachen in mind, I did know there was a minuscule chance this could happen at the last minute, and need to be prepared accordingly. Colleen Rutledge got to experience this as well, even more than I did. Like the Boy Scouts say, always be prepared. We were off to Aachen.

The competition came and went in a flash, and while I’ll admit I didn’t have the best possible preparation, I don’t regret my decision to go to Aachen in the slightest. With small spaces, grass turf, loud and intimately close crowds, a monstrous stadium and atmosphere, and a cross-county course that felt a bit like jumping in a tumble dryer, it wasn’t a venue necessarily well suited to my hot Thoroughbred horse who would prefer to run.

Aachen’s course and atmosphere didn’t really suit the Deer, but it was a great experience. 
Photo by Libby Law Photography

However I’ve had a very successful season this year at home, and when one is given the opportunity to compete abroad against the very best in the world at a venue you can’t replicate anywhere in the world, you don’t turn it down.

I was given the task of being lead-off rider for team USA, which means I didn’t have a chance to see how show jumping or cross-country was riding as I went very early in the go. After a near foot-perfect round when we were up on our minute markers and about to come in under time, we had a heartbreaking fly-by at a right-handed corner just four fences from home.

The good news is the score still helped bring home a bronze medal for team USA, behind the Germans with gold and the Kiwis bringing home the silver. While I can’t say I was happy with my individual result, I was thrilled for our team as a whole, which wasn’t even a team a few days prior as we were still in the States and the U.K. respectively.

The U.S. team base at Aachen. Photo by Libby Law Photography

In the grand scheme of things, my run-out at Aachen wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. If I had gone clear, I would have been as high as a kite, feeling rather confident going into Burghley.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the Burghley course walk or drone tour yet, feeling over-confident is not a completely good way to approach Burghley. There are some not-small fences on some rather technical lines, and we have to be more than on our game to get the job done this week.

I was chatting with my friend Rebecca Howard as we were trudging across Mark Todd’s cross-country schooling field looking for more right-handed corners to jump after my first post-Aachen cross-country school, and noted if I had just jumped between those flags, I wouldn’t be making her drive me all over the country to school and we could be inside with dry feet sipping tea…or wine!

I owe an enormous thank you to so many people right now who have helped me get through the last month it would fill up an entire separate blog post. From my syndicate owners and sponsors, the girls at home and here caring for Donner, the Kesslers for hosting our team pre-Aachen, everyone at Maizey Manor for welcoming Donner post-Aachen and making your cars, rigs and facility available, everyone who has housed me, driven me around, allowed me to become an expert manual driver, the vets and farriers at home and abroad, the USET, Tim Dutta, Land Rover, it takes an army of support from ocean to ocean.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone. Here’s to a successful Burghley and hoping to making everyone proud back home!

One of the Chronicle’s bloggers, eventer Lynn Symansky placed fifth at the 2013 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and 13th at the 2013 Pau CCI**** (France) with her Donner. They were also part of the U.S. team gold medal effort at the 2011 Pan American Games. Lynn and Donner competed on the Land Rover U.S. Eventing Team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. Lynn runs her Lynn Symansky Equestrian out of Middleburg, Va.

You can read all about Lynn and Donner in her previous blogs.