Lexington - Saturday, July 18th

This morning we took a tour of the Kentucky Horse Park on our bikes. It is so huge. Currently there is a Breyer event going on (yes, Breyer is those plastic horses!!) so there are tons of people and not getting hit on our bikes was a challenge! We toured all the rings, including the amazing footing from New York, and the stabling. It really is an amazing place and is kind of similar to Spruce Meadows. Not quite as large but you get a similar feeling.

Around eleven we went to the barn and Oslo and I had a great workout. It hasn't been that warm, low 20s, but the humidity got to both of us and at the end of the ride we were both fairly sweaty!!

The afternoon was filled with a quick shopping trip and lunch. Afterwards we got to watch the polo! Such an awesome game to watch in person. We learned so much about the rules with the help of Chelsea's blackberry. There are 6 Chukkas in a game, each 7 minutes long. Chukkas are like periods. At the end of each Chukkas they must switch ponies just because of the fitness demand of the game. And when they switch ponies, they just jump from one horse to another, no actual getting off and then getting onto the other. Also, there are four players on the field from each team at once and two refs who also ride ponies. It is a very physical sport with checking and hooking allowed! The ponies are usually a cross between quarter horses and thoroughbreds and the best ones usually come from Argentina. Oh, and at half time, the spectators all take to the field and fill in the divets made by the ponies ripping around! It was neat to see hundreds of people all stomping in the divets on the field!

Tomorrow I will ride Oslo again and then we will likely tour around Lexington for a while. In addition, the Ontario horses are supposed to be arriving tomorrow at the park so we will go greet them. Magic and Oslo don't move to the park until Monday though - they are enjoying there large field too much!

Lexington, KENTUCKY!

Finally we have arrived! We were stuck in traffic for about an hour on the interstate, so it took us a little longer than expected, but the horses are in a huge field with Kentucky blue grass now and they are lovin' it!!! Both Oslo and Magic were running up and down the hills for a good half hour! Frolicking like no tomorrow!!! =)
It was fairly warm here today as well. We did have a bunch of rain when we were sitting in traffic, but once we hit Lexington it was warm and humid, around 30 degrees.
Once we got the horses settled at the beautiful stable (pictures to come) we got ourselves settled into the Kentucky Horse Park campground where we will be staying for a few nights until the actually show starts. It is absolutely beautiful here!!!
After dinner we went back to the barn and I had my first ride on Oslo since the trip. He felt amazingly good and wasn't even that stiff. He was pretty hot though (temperment wise) and definitely eager to go! Eventually he settled into the work and we had a very good stretchy ride. Tomorrow we will have a real workout in the morning and then try and catch some polo at the Kentucky Horse Park in the afternoon!

Travel Day 3 - Shirley, Indiana

We successfully navigated the through Minneapolis this morning but had an extremely long day of driving to our destination on the east side of Indianapolis. We also had to travel around Indianapolis since we were coming from the west, but instead we decided to go through (and by decided I actually mean by accident!). It was neat though because we got to pass the big race track where they run the Indy 500!!! In addition, we passed through some "sketchy" areas of town, definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. Several houses were boarded up and people with their kids were riding in the boxes of their pick-up trucks! Anyways, eventually we made it to Cuttin-up Stables, our stop for the night, around 10:00 eastern time. It was a really long day, and the horses were very eager to get off the trailer. One more day of travel but it should be a short one - only about 3 hours to Lexington, Kentucky!

Travel Day 2 - Rogers, Minnesota

We crossed the Saskatchewan border into North Dakota first thing this morning. The horses, my parents, and I all crossed with no issues. Chelsea, Janine, and Sylvie were a different story though. Since Sylvie is a minor and is not travelling with any of her family (Chelsea being the owner of the horse and Janine being her coach) the officers at the border were sure that she was being kidnapped! Each one was questioned individually and their car was searched. Once only apples and Janine's stash of bananas (not supposed to take fruit across the border) were found, they were all clear to go! This delay made for a slightly longer day though and we didn't get into Rogers, Minnesota until after 8:00 central time. The horses travelled well though and we only have one more long day!

Travel Day 1 - Weyburn, Saskatchewan

We left first thing this morning and drove for about 12 hours. Both horses seem to be travelling well and they are now having a party at the Weyburn Agricultural Grounds where they have a nice large field to themselves. Magic was in a very playful mood and Oslo eventually joined him in some frolicking!
Unexpectedly, it has been quite cold and the horses are turned out with a cooler and their stable sheets since neither of us brought real blankets, thinking cold weather would NOT be an issue!

We will be crossing the border first thing tomorrow morning - hopefully we don't have too much of a delay.

We're back!

Lindsay & Oslo will compete at the 2009 North American Young Riders Championships in Lexington, Kentucky.

We will depart Bluffton, AB on Tuesday July 14th and a Junior rider from B.C. will also be traveling with us - Sylvie Fraser riding Magic. It will be nice for Oslo to have a buddy in the trailer for the 3500 km trip down to Lexington, Kentucky!

Oslo and Lindsay will be going as individuals representing Canada at the Championships. There were only 6 Canadian Young riders who qualified, four of them being from Ontario, causing Equine Canada to have to make an Ontario team, leaving Lindsay and Olso, along with Annie-Pier from Quebec as individuals. It will still be an amazing experience though and representing Canada is always an honour!

Show updates and wrap-up

Saturday morning was the Junior Individual test. We rode late in the morning when both Oslo and I thought it was way too hot. Oslo became very tired and unfortunately, I had to really hold him up through the test. Oslo kept his brain and gave a good effort allowing us to get all our right-to-left changes clean, which is our difficult change. Overall, we ended with a score of 65.2%. All the scores were so close in the top-15, with no scores over 70%. With our score of 65 we moved into 10th place which was a bit of a disappointment for us, but it meant that we got to ride our Freestyle on Sunday. Also, the judge Joan McCartney had me in the bronze medal position which made me smile after a hard day.

Saturday night was the top-15 Young Rider Freestyle. They were amazing to watch, and with one rider to go, Canada was sitting first, second and third. The anxiety of the Canadian crowd was huge. After the final ride, we waited for the scores to come up on the board and finally it came up 0.1% lower than Julie Watchorn, which was our Canadian in third! Canada had swept the Freestyle with Alex Duncan taking Gold, Leah Wilson taking Silver, and Julie winning Bronze.

Sunday morning I rode at 10:30 am and again it seemed way too hot, so we had only 15 minutes of warm-up. Oslo was getting tired of the whole showing situation, making him super-hot, or as mom likes to say, “a freak”. We knew though, that if we had too much warm-up, he would be even worse, so we took the chance of having a really short warm-up. We managed to hold everything together, but consequently had to ride a bit conservative. Overall, the test was fairly good, but since Oslo was not on my seat, we had one late change – and it’s usually his good one. At the end, we received a score of 68.3%, which was 0.6% from Bronze, putting us in 6th place overall. Everyone loved our music, with the stingy judges giving us no less than a 7 on music and Gary Rockwell even giving us an 8!

The closing ceremonies were amazing and a very memorable moment. Our Junior Team got to stand on the podium and received our Gold Medal along with a beautiful cooler. We even got to sing our Canadian anthem. It was totally spectacular.

Canada also did very well in eventing and show jumping, receiving Team Bronze in eventing, Team Silver in show jumping, Individual Gold in eventing and Individual Silver in show jumping. Therefore, I think it’s time the North American show came to Canada!

We’re on our way home now and Oslo is very excited to get back into his field.

Canadian Junior Team Wins GOLD!!!!

With all 4 members of the Canadian Junior team finishing in the top eight individually, we will be bringing home the gold medals!!! We ended up with a team score of 204 and Region 2 from the United States got silver with a score of 201. Jade had the top score with a 69% for the squad. Jamie beat her pesonal best by 4% receiving a 67% and Sara had a flawless, perfect ride getting a 66.9%. Oslo and I did not have such a great ride because of a couple of errors in the rein back, and one late flying change. Also we unfortunately rode second in the morning at 8:08 in the morning (I was first up for team Canada) and Oslo was slightly distracted by the event riders riding up and down the hill beside the arena. COnsequently, Oslo was inattentive in the counter canter, causing us to change in the canter. We recovered quickly, but of course we still received a 4. In the middle of the test, Albrecht ran over and started yelling at the eventers and Tom Dvorak snapped on the steward afterwards - they ropped off that area immediately afterwards! We still received a score of 66.75% and our trot work was very good, so we were happy. Also, Canada was sitting individually 1st, 2nd, and 3rd until many of the anchor riders rode!!! The Americans didn't know what to think!!

The Young Rider teams also did very well. The Coast to Coast Canadian team ended up missing the bronze by 0.04 of a %. Also, the Ontario team got fifth. Everyone had very good rides as well.

Successful Jog

The entire Canadian team successful passed the jog. We also got to ride in the competition ring today. There was scheduled times for all the teams to ride in the ring. Therefore, there was four of us in the ring at once for a total of 20 minutes.

The order of go was picked for the Canadian teams by our chef d'equip, placing me first to go for the Junior team!!! Then the order of of go for the different teams was chosen by the ground jury by drawing the teams out of a hat. As a result, Canada was drawn second, placing me second to ride the Junior team test at 8:08 in the morning on Thursday morning. Jamie rides second, Sara rides third and Jade rides last for the team. There is a total of 35 Junior riders.

Tomorrow the Young riders start riding at 8:00 in the morning, but our first Canadian goes at 8:45. There is 45 Young riders in total. I am very excited to watch the Young Riders, and we also plan to watch some of the Canadian jumpers as well.

It has been getting quite hot here, around 90 degrees farenheit, and it is expected to get hotter!

Arriving at the Lexington Horse Centre

After a couple more down time days at Fancy Hill Farm, Oslo and I have arrived at the Lexington Horse Centre about 15 minutes from Fancy Hill farm. After being in a turnout for the last few days, Oslo had shell shock when he was restricted to his concrete stall (everyone on the team has been calling it the horse penitentiary). After a workout in the large indoor arena and a long walk, Oslo has begun to settle in, but is still a bit of a nervous wreck at times. Hopefully he will continue to relax.

Lexington Horse Centre is HUGE. It has about 10 huge barns and then over 15 competition rings. The only thing that is not very nice is the fact that it is all pavement, hardly any grazing:(

I have met all the Young Riders now and the last member of the Junior team - Jamie (Tom Dvorak's student). We have decorated our alleyway with everything you can possibley think of that is covered with maple leafs or the word Canada. We have balloons, flags on the cars, golf carts, and stalls, towels, beach balls, and even water toys!! Decorating was a riot! Gillian Southerland has also arrived (she coaches the Young Rider Danielle McKinnon). We met Gillian in Ottawa last year and I totally love her. She is so much fun, down to earth, and encouraging. She is an amazing rider herself, missing the Pan Am Games do to an unfortunate circumstance. Hopefully though we will see her on the Canadian team at the next Olympics!

Tomorrow is the opening ceremonies and the dreaded jog. No matter how sound you think your horse is, your heart is still in throat as you approach the vet for the jog. Hopefully all will go well for the Canadian team. We also have specific jackets and scatfs we have to wear for the jog so we all look like a team. Oslo and I are the 4th ones to jog for the Juniors, with the other three of our team members going before.

We all have bright green wrist bands that we have to wear to get into the barns, and only 2 people from each team are allowed to be in the barn between 9:00 pm and 6:00 am (when the barns are technically closed). Today we also got a bunch of clothing and promotion items from the Canadian team sponsors, such as a cooler for Oslo, a young rider jacket, shirt, hats, etc. Dad thought we should have gotten a few tanks of diesel instead!!

Getting Oriented

After having a rest in his field, Oslo and I rode later in the afternoon in the outdoor arena which consisted of orangy/redish sand. We did light stretching and then went on a trail ride through the rolling hills (around the cross country course) with Alex and Elektra. The scenery is amazing!

The weather has been easy on us so far, with temperatures being cooler than normal for this time of year. Yesterday and early this morning it was cloudy and not too warm. Later on in the afternoon it started to get warmer though with the temperature rising to 86 degrees Farenheit. The humidity is also crazy here, making it seem way more hot than it really is. Last year though the temperature was in the 100s though, so I am not going to complain too much.

We also met Leah Wilson, her mother, and the owner of the horse Leah rides - West Side Lady. Leah is on the Canadian Young Rider team. They were completely amazed that Oslo lives entirely outside all year round (and doesn't come in at night) in a 5 acre field. I can see why they were amazed though, since West Side Lady hasn't been turned out for 4 years. 4 YEARS!!!! At one point they asked mom "how do you find Oslo in such a big pasture?" We had to respond by laughing!

Everyone has been super friendly and we look forward to meeting some more of the Canadian team tomorrow.

Finally we've arrived!!

After 4 very long days and miles of construction we have all arrived safely. Every night we stopped at a farm where Oslo could stretch his legs every night. We drove through some beautiful country and some not so beautiful. The highlights of the drive where definitely stopping at Dog River (from the show Corner Gas) in Sask., driving through Wisconsin, and passing over the Blue Ridge Mountains between West Virignia and Virginia. Negatives were driving through Chicago(with the combination of about 10 toll booths and construction, is was a riot), accidentally driving through Charleston (Dad got to practice his shifting) and then finally getting on the right road in West Virginia to only get stopped because of an accident and having to turn around. Oslo travelled fairly well though and is enjoying his huge pasture at Fancy Hill Farm. Oslo will enjoy one day of rest and then we will start riding on Friday when the rest of the Canadian team is expected to arrive from Ontario.

We have met Sara Regehr (and Danika) from Vernon, B.C., one of the other members of the Canadian Junior team. Also, we met Alex Duncan (and Elektra), a Young Rider, and her mother, Christina, filled us in with all the information about the show and some important gossip (you know how the dressage world is!)!!!!

We qualified!

Lindsay & Oslo qualified for the 2007 North American Young Rider Championships, to be held in Lexington, Virgina, July 31 - August 5.

We will be leaving Bluffton on Sunday, July 22, with reserved overnight stays for Oslo in Estevan, SK (where we will cross the border the following day), Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and arriving at Fancy Hill Farm the evening of July 25. Oslo will rest and acclimatize at Fancy Hill Farm for 4 days before we move to Virginia Horse Centre, just outside of Lexington.

We'll keep you all posted along the way!