Day three of WEG, and all I can say is wow. Today was the Grand Prix Special and I honestly think that was the best class of competition I've ever seen. While I have been extremely fortunate to see so many of these top horse & rider combinations over my 2+ years in Germany, I have still never seen anything quite like this.

None of the riders rode for second place today. While it's basically a given that first place would go to Edward & Totilas, every rider (save one or two) seemed to give 100% and ask 100% from their horses. This meant that mistakes were big ones, and that was a huge factor in the placings today. For me, I'd rather see that kind of brilliance, with that kind of risk, rather than watching a bunch of safe, safe, tests. It was amazing.

There are so many websites with professional writers and photographers to fill you in on the details, so I won't bother. I do want to say that my personal favorite today was the lovely British rider, Laura Bechtolsheimer and her big orange horse, Mistral Hojris. I've seen them before but never so brilliant as today. I liked her better than Totilas. Okay? I said it. I liked them better.

What a wonderful trip it's been, and it's only just begun!

Eiren 

I made it to Lexington, but I'm not sure where my luggage is? The funny thing was that I was standing at the US Airways baggage claim desk next to Madeleine Winter-Schulz and one of her riders. It was Isabell Werth. I did NOT stare, just wished them luck this week. 

I also met Ulf & Eva Moeller (this year's World and Bundeschampion) in the Muenster airport and felt like their stalker as we shared the same flight schedule all the way into Lexington. 

So, thanks to the wifi at the hotel I can write something completely irrelevant before I go to bed after a looooong day traveling. I'm super tired and super excited for the Games and to see my mom and many friends. Yay!

Eiren 

The Bundeschampionate feels like a lifetime ago. It, like Verden, is one of my favourite shows not only because of the amazing horses, but also the great people I get to see. This year was no exception, as I got to catch up with lots of friends, as well as see some top competition. 

The winning six year old dressage horse, Blickpunkt, with Eva Moeller, flew through their test. That was absolutely the most forward ridden Six Year Old Test I have ever seen. One might wonder where they showed their collection, as the trot looked like it was either a medium or extended throughout. However, she performed everything accurately and with harmony, and really did show a clear difference in and out of the extended gaits. The horse is fantastic, but I didn't see much that makes me confident he will really be able to sit for the 3 P's (piaffe, passage, & pirouette). However, I did not see the warm up and I've never seen them school at home, so after only seeing 6 minutes in the ring I'll reserve judgement. 

Ingrid & Alfie looked great, and finished in 6th place. As always, they were so harmonious together, making it just a pleasure to watch.  The judging overall was pretty straightforward. There were a few rides that I didn't understand quite why they scored low here or there, and others where I couldn't understand what seemed like inflated scores, but at least at the Bundeschampionate the judges give a lot of explanation as to why they scored what they did.

As always, we caught some jumping competition (Nicole and I actually skipped the last half of the 5 year old Dressage to watch the 6 year old Jumping) which was exciting.  

Socially, the BuCh was a great success. This year DressageTrainingOnline.com flew a group of American young horse trainers to the competition (what an amazing opportunity!) and a few in that group were friends of mine. What a great chance to catch up!

As much fun as I had at the BuCh, I am currently sitting in the Munster Airport, on my way to Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games, and this is all I can think of. I've failed miserably at my attempts to write about this amazing show from my perspective, but alas, I've got THE competition of the year ahead of me, and that's what I'm thinking about...  

and my flight is loading so I'm off. Wohoo!

Eiren 

Last week my favorite youngster at Hermann's was full of baby stink. I could already see it in the cross ties, he was feeling the effects of the crisp, cool wind and had a case of the heebie-jeebies. The "small hall" was busy, so I couldn't lunge him before my ride, but I wasn't worried about his bucks. He can be quite athletic in his endeavors, but he's never mean or deliberate about his antics, and he's never scared me.

Sure enough he gave a couple of spooks, leaps, & bucks, but tried to be focused in between.  However, the point where he tried to spook and buck at the same time proved to be too much for his coordination and baby went down. My little man fell over on his right side and luckily I launched far enough to avoid getting landed on by my young friend. This little bit of bad luck was made worse by my taking the complete impact on my right shoulder. Yep, the shoulder that was operated on in January. Oops. (gotta mention, even though I didn't land on my head I'm glad that I was wearing my helmet as always)

It hurt a whole lot the next day and so I scheduled an appointment with my shoulder specialist. He saw me the following day and said we needed an MRI to see if my weakness and pain was just from impact and muscle swelling or if I had any tears in the muscle or tendons in the joint. Unfortunately, my long planned trip to Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games clashed with the availability of the MRI offices, so I will have to wait until I'm back from WEG to have the procedure done. 

The doctor ordered two weeks without riding, and quite frankly I'm bored as hell. The good news is that the shoulder is feeling better every day, but I'm actually going to do my best to listen to the Dr's good advice this time. If this were any other joint in my body I'd be in the saddle already, but since I've already had such trouble here, I'm going to take it easy and make sure I'm really ready before getting back to work. 

Meanwhile, I'll do my best to get caught up and organized in other parts of my life, including writing about all the going ons in my life here.

Cheers,

Eiren

It's been so busy since I've been back I've been a little neglectful of my self-imposed blogging duties. Good thing no one pays me and sets a deadline!

Rewinding to my trip home to Canada, let me start by saying how nice it is every time I get to go home. Though I haven't lived in the most beautiful and friendly of countries since early 2002, I still get such a feeling of familiarity, comfort, and homecoming every time one of those nice men or women at customs hands back my passport and says, "Welcome home." 

As always, I had a packed full clinic at my mom's Talus Ridge Farm. It was wonderful see lots of the usual suspects in attendance as well as some new faces who I hope to see again. There were a few familiar names missing, as they've gone off to new jobs or university, or horse shows conflicted with the schedule, but I hope to see them again in one of my next visits. 

It's been a while since I've been in North America and teaching clinics, and I have to say I miss it! What a wonderful thing to have enthusiastic riders who love their horses and work hard at the directions you give. There were some lovely combinations and what I really love is the bond you sense between the riders and their horses. Although sometimes I urged a little more of the German-style focus and determination in their riding, I would love to bring back some of the joy these riders get with the breakthroughs and new feelings they get. It's so nice to see people smiling when they ride!

A few extended lunch breaks were scheduled in the clinics so that I could go have acupuncture, then some last-minute chiropractor visits. My mom made me acupuncture appointments already a few weeks before I came, as this woman is amazing and leaves me feeling physically and mentally relaxed and energized after a few visits, and this time was no different. However, my new favorite name is Murray, after the chiropractor extraordinaire I got to meet. After having to reschedule lessons due to a migraine, my fabulous step-dad Larry talked our way into a last-minute lunch time appointment with his guy, Murray. Murray made the magic happen I tell ya. I think it was the single most physically satisfying experience I've ever had with my clothes on. Enough said. 

After my busy and physically healing time in the Okanagan, I flew do Vancouver to meet up with my dad. After watching some football and having dinner with some of his great friends, we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a few days. We drove out to Uclulet for one brilliant morning of salmon fishing, where I considered abandoning everything I've ever worked for in the name of living on the beautiful ocean and being a fisherman (fisherwoman? doesn't have the same ring). I then realized it's even harder work than I've done the last 20 years or so, and I'd be starting from scratch, so… no. Instead, I promised myself I'd do this more often. 

With that thought in my head I boarded the plane back over the ocean, and got back home and back to work. It was good to be back in the saddle after my break, but I sure felt it the second day! Amazing how quickly the muscles forget. I missed the first three days of the Bundeschampionate (German Championships for young horses)but made it for the weekend's show. And this is what I'll write about next time…

Cheers!

Eiren

I'll pick up near where I left, Sunday at the horse show. During the break between the Medien Cup and Grand Prix Freestyle I was trying on some new riding pants and threw my back. I wish I had some exciting story that involved injuring myself on a wild horse and my heroic & amazing riding efforts, but no, it was breeches. On sale. Yeesh. After whining my way through the afternoon I decided to go to the hospital, where a bit of chiropractic work and some good pills saved the day and by the next afternoon my lower back was fine. Then my middle/upper back & neck started to hurt. Tuesday's visit to my regular sports medicine doctor and a bit more chiro helped my middle back, but by Thursday night/Friday morning my neck was in a bad way. After riding my big gelding Friday morning I went back to the hospital to see the magician who fixed my lower back Sunday night. He tried some more chiro work but said my muscles were extremely tight and so we opted for a cortisone injection. Hurt like a SOB, but man, the relief is worth it!!

After three doctors visits in six days, I went Saturday afternoon to a horse show with my big pony, Dutchman. Now, Dutchy and I haven't been having the most stellar time lately, as he is simply a man's horse . Not just any man, but a big man. While I don't consider myself a delicate, wee girl, this horse makes me feel like just that. In other situations that might be nice, but for my job it sucks. So it was only with the thought of keeping the boss happy that I saddled up Dutchy for competition once again. Our first test, Dressurpferde L was an odd go. We got the great marks of "8" for walk, trot, and canter, then a "5" for submission & throughness. That was probably because we couldn't show left bend and did an awesome giraffe impression in most of the left lead canter. Gads. We ended up with an overall mark of 7.2, not too far from placing. 

I really didn't want to bother with the second class, another Dressurpferde L, but this one an LVM qualifier (tougher competition), but the boss was encouraging, saying what have I got to lose, it's only going to get better through experience, and all the other wise, encouraging words I didn't want to hear. So I was the first to go in the LVM class, and what do you know? We rocked it. Dutchy got great marks finishing with the elusive 8.0, we finished 3rd, even beating Ingrid on Ratzinger and one of her lovely eventing five year olds!

Sunday I got to show Dante again, at M10 and S6. I rode the M10 in Munster in July, but this was my first S6, which is in between a PSG and I1. I didn't have any eyes on the ground at this show, so I was happy with our scores of 64+% in both classes. In the M it placed us 8th of 27, but in the S we only finished 16 of 26 combinations!! A lot of really good quality in the S class, which was won by a wee boy who's probably a few years away from being eligible for his driver's license! While of course I had fantasies of placing MUCH higher than 16th, I was happy with our first attempt at that level. After watching the video I wanted to kick myself for the silly mistakes where I just gave points away (that left pirouette that felt pretty good? No, that was a small circle!), but that's how we learn! I will try to post the videos of our tests in the next week, so that you can watch and learn what NOT to do! Once again, I can't believe that Ingrid has given me the chance to show her wonderful Dante at the higher levels, giving me the experience and exposure here that is so important for my future. I maybe haven't mentioned it in three postings, but Ingrid is the most amazing woman I've ever met!

Speaking of the Amazing One, its official, she's on the team for WEG!!! Since I'm there already to watch the dressage, now I'll have to watch the Eventing and cheer on Ingrid and Braxxi! Wohoo!

Ok, off to work now. I will write another update soon about my fantastic trip to Canada. While it was a nightmare for me physically, all the important parts (heart & mind) are refreshed and happy after some amazing, if too short, time with family! Wonderful clinic & great visits were exactly what I needed. I will have to also update on the Bundeschampionate, which started this week. I'm planning on going tomorrow to watch, and maybe Sunday if I can squeak it in. 

Cheers,

Eiren